Author Topic: Isiah Thomas On Not Making Dream Team: ‘It’s Politics’  (Read 7440 times)

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Re: Isiah Thomas On Not Making Dream Team: ‘It’s Politics’
« Reply #15 on: September 25, 2016, 07:08:53 PM »

Offline Boris Badenov

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Isiah Thomas was not on the Dream Team because everybody on that team hated Isiah Thomas, and they all hated Isiah Thomas because he was a blankety-blank.

There are rumors that Jordan would not have played if Thomas was on the national team. Also, Chuck Daly (Thomas's coach) was the HC of the Dream Team, which should have put the managerial politics in Thomas's favor, if anything.

This is exactly it. There is no Dream Team if Thomas is on it. Rumor was that Jordan, Bird and perhaps a couple of others would not play with him. We've heard the rumors about Jordan. Bird really disliked Isiah after the "he'd just be another player if he were black" comment. Pippen flat out said he didn't want Thomas on the team. Thomas was an ass and in a somewhat close decision between him and Stockton, they took the guy who was easier to get along with.

As far as him deserving it, Stockton was clearly the better player in the couple of seasons leading up to the selection. Thomas was a 18/7 guy who as a defensive liability. Stockton was a 17/14!!! player who was better defensively. Who would you reasonably take? Which is why I said the race was somewhat close. Thomas had a better history. Stockton was a better player. When you add in personalities, it really wasn't a difficult decision.

Some people point to the selection of Bird that the team didn't get the absolute best players. Bird, due to his otherworldly status and his friendship with Magic was granted kind of a "Professor Emeritus" role. Of course, he was still averaging 20/10 at the time and was still a better player than Thomas.

I feel like Stockton was/is often underappreciated. Wasn't he the all-time leader in assists AND steals when he retired? And a decent scorer to boot. Thomas was a very good player, but I think Stockton was better.

In that period Stockton was better, for sure. And he was FAR better for that team, where there was no shortage of scorers.

Re: Isiah Thomas On Not Making Dream Team: ‘It’s Politics’
« Reply #16 on: September 25, 2016, 08:46:53 PM »

Offline moiso

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In hindsight Stockton should be on the team.  He was a better player by that point in time and a better fit.   He was an excellent player but it still felt wrong at the time because Thomas was a legend who won championships, was MVP of a couple all star games, etc.  If Jordan didn't mind having him on the team I'm sure he would have been on it based on his career accomplishments.

Re: Isiah Thomas On Not Making Dream Team: ‘It’s Politics’
« Reply #17 on: September 26, 2016, 06:25:56 AM »

Offline ederson

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Isiah Thomas was not on the Dream Team because everybody on that team hated Isiah Thomas, and they all hated Isiah Thomas because he was a blankety-blank.

There are rumors that Jordan would not have played if Thomas was on the national team. Also, Chuck Daly (Thomas's coach) was the HC of the Dream Team, which should have put the managerial politics in Thomas's favor, if anything.

This is exactly it. There is no Dream Team if Thomas is on it. Rumor was that Jordan, Bird and perhaps a couple of others would not play with him. We've heard the rumors about Jordan. Bird really disliked Isiah after the "he'd just be another player if he were black" comment. Pippen flat out said he didn't want Thomas on the team. Thomas was an ass and in a somewhat close decision between him and Stockton, they took the guy who was easier to get along with.


I think Magic also didn`t want him because of his reaction when Magic announced he was HIV positive