Reaction to Michael Jordan’s Hatred for the Detroit Pistons is Being Directed at the Wrong Isiah Thomas
In Sunday night’s showing of ESPN’s “The Last Dance,” Michael Jordan made it perfectly clear that he wasn’t a fan of the Detroit Pistons. When his Chicago Bulls finally got over the hump of defeating the Pistons in the Eastern Conference Finals, Detroit’s Bad Boys wouldn’t shake hands and stormed off the court. The Pistons were also accused of being very dirty and trying to injure the Bulls players. Nobody is feeling the hatred more than Isaiah Thomas and the poor guy had nothing to do with it.
Isiah Thomas vs. Isaiah Thomas
Isiah Thomas was the Hall-of-Fame point guard for those Detroit Pistons teams that Michael Jordan was not very fond of. He was a 13-year veteran of the NBA who played his entire career with the Pistons. He is a 12-time NBA All-Star who was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2000.
Isaiah Thomas was a second-round pick by the Sacramento Kings in the 2011 NBA draft. He scratched and clawed his way into becoming a two-time NBA All-Star when he was a member of the Boston Celtics. Thomas was a prolific scorer and has his best season in 2016-17 when he averaged 28.9 points per contest in 76 games. A hip injury derailed his promising career and he had played for four teams in the last four years.
There is no relation between the two although the younger Isaiah was named after Isiah after a bet back in 1988. The confusion has gone on for a while with many fans thinking Isaiah is the son of Isiah. The confusion is also understandable as both were small point guards who were successful NBA players.
The Pistons vs. the Bulls
In the 1991 Eastern Conference Finals, the Chicago Bulls, led by Michael Jordan, finally got over the hump of defeating Isiah Thomas’ Detroit Pistons after having been eliminated by them in the postseason during the last two seasons.
When the Bulls won to advance to the NBA Finals, Jordan took exception to the Pistons quickly walking off the court without shaking hands. “All you have to do is go back to us losing in Game 7 (the previous year),” Jordan said in Sunday night’s episode of “The Last Dance.” “I shook everybody’s hand. Two years in a row, we shook their hands when they beat us. There’s a certain respect to the game, that we paid to them. That’s sportsmanship.”
Thomas talked about the incident. “That was the only time that I think I’d ever been swept in a series,” he said. “I was normally the one doing the sweeping. Their time had arrived, and ours was over. As we’re coming out of the game, Laimbeer said: ‘We’re not shaking their hands.’ … Knowing what we know now, in the aftermath of what took place, I think all of us would’ve stopped and said congratulations like they do now.”
Jordan, who also said the Bulls tried to make it personal by physically beating up the Bulls, said he didn’t believe Thomas when he said they would shake hands now. “Whatever (Isiah) says now, you know it wasn’t his true actions then,” Jordan said.
Isaiah Thomas caught in the middle
While the Michael Jordan vs. Isiah Thomas feud was being shown on “The Last Dance” Sunday night, fans were directing some anger at Isiah Thomas. The only issue was that their anger was being sent to the wrong Isaiah Thomas, the poor guy who wasn’t involved in any of the action.
The former Boston Celtics star was taking the brunt of the heat for something the former Detroit Pistons star was doing. Isaiah Thomas took the whole social media criticism in stride.
Isaiah Thomas had to let everyone know he people were flooding the wrong Twitter account with hatred. “Y’all be tweeting me mad at me like I was tryna hurt Jordan lol,” he wrote.
