Isiah Thomas is an A**hole?

Isiah Thomas on the line, the day after, on national television and before a
captive audience mostly locked down and locked out of sports, Michael
Jordan called him an "asshole."
How exactly does he feel about the documentary, "The Last Dance," so far?
"I really am into it. I'm glued to the television.
"You know," he says, "it's interesting watching the doc, getting a peek behind
the curtain. Because you don't know how other teams work. Seeing the
relationship and the way Jerry Krause was treated, I found that interesting.
How Jack McCloskey was revered by us. And how Red Auerbach was
revered by the Celtics. Watching the relationships -- even Jerry West with
the Lakers -- and watching how Chicago and Jerry Krause had their
relationship."
The implication is clear: If Jordan wants to sling mud on classiness and how to
show respect, we might want to consider the broader truths.
Let me also say this: I like Isiah Thomas, a lot, and believe he's a grossly
underrated all-time great. I got to know him almost a decade ago when I wrote
a piece on how he was largely banished from the NBA. I learned then that
there are hard, raw feelings toward him -- and from him as a result. That
clearly hasn't changed.
Jordan has had, in the documentary he controls, the chance to say what he
will say about his former rival. So in this space, today, let's largely allow
Thomas to respond. There are two sides to every story, and here's the other.
Thomas became a national trending topic this week when on one of Sunday's
episodes Jordan refused to even watch a video of Isiah talking, saying, "You
can show me anything you want. There's no way you're not going to convince
me he wasn't an asshole."
So, Isiah, Jordan called you an a-hole. Thoughts?
"I was definitely surprised," he says. "Because we've been in each other's
presence before, and I've never gotten that type of reaction from him. We
were even at dinner a couple times and he was always pleasant. Always good
to my kids. Always good to my son. He even gave my son a pair of gym
shoes.
"The competition that we all had on the floor, I truly just thought it was on the
floor."
Only it wasn't. Clearly. Michael Jordan is an international icon -- albeit one
famous for grudges -- whose words matter. And his words are clear. He does
not like Isiah Thomas one bit.
Isiah, do you like Mike?
"I do. I do. I don't have anything against him and I definitely admire him as a
basketball player," Thomas says. " Like I said ... I haven't had an interaction
with him that's been unkind."
It's not just Jordan. Magic Johnson had a long, long feud with him. Others, on
and off the record, will lay out a point-by-point case for why they dislike the
man so thoroughly.
I ask Thomas why so many of these guys dislike him so strongly.
"They seem to like all the guys that they beat," he says, and laughs for a long
time.
Yet the truth is more complicated. From his botched run with the Knicks, all
the way back to his playing days as the star of the Bad Boys of basketball,
Thomas has garnered many, many enemies. Winston Churchill could tell you
that's a sign you've stood for something, at some time in your life. But a lot of
others will just say that's the price of being, well, an asshole.
Yet the basketball era Thomas came up in wasn't like today's. You weren't
friends. You didn't hang out in the offseason. There was no friendly Twitter
banter, no AAU ties connecting you back to childhood, no culture of friendship
away from the court.
Then, it was a war. You had to go through Bird, Magic, Thomas and Jordan at
their primes. The all-time greats at the height of their powers all competing for
the same singular thing, that trophy. And a rough and tumble version of the
game that saw Jordan, and others, get knocked around in a way unimaginable
for today's players or fans.
"I don't think there's a guy playing during that period of time that got hit more
than me," Thomas said.
Thomas tells me. "Remember, I went to the basket a lot and the rules then
were the big guys could hit you. In that period, from '80 to '90 there were four
dominant teams, and four dominant players that won championships: Dr. J
and the Philadelphia 76ers. When I came into the league they were the big
dogs.
"Boston with Bird and McHale," he continues. "And then Magic with Kareem.
Then us with the Pistons. Everyone was physical and everyone I mentioned,
you wouldn't say soft about any of them. That was the physicality that
everyone played with. What happened with the Pistons is they'll show you
three or four videos and say, 'Oh yeah, that was the Pistons.' You could say
that about any team. Just like Jordan got hit, I got hit by the Chicago Bulls, I got
hit by Charles Oakley, I got hit by Horace Grant."
For Thomas, Jordan's greatness too often overshadows the '80s own version
of historically great basketball, and its historically great players.
"When you put Jordan and his basketball team in the '80s, they weren't a very
successful team," he says. "They just weren't. When you talk about Jordan
and his team dominating, they dominated the '90s. But when you put him with
those Lakers teams and those Pistons teams and those Celtics teams, they all
beat him. They just did.
"What separated Jordan from all of us was he was the first one to three-peat.
But he didn't three-peat against Magic, Larry and Dr. J."