Michael Jordan has always been blamed for Isiah Thomas’ exclusion from the 1992 Dream Team. It is widely believed that Jordan would never have played for the Barcelona squad if Thomas had been named to the team. MJ and Zeke were bitter NBA rivals whose beef extended beyond the hardcourt.
But right from the start, His Airness has always denied having a hand in Thomas’ Dream Team snub. His first denial in 1991, however, which came shortly after USA Basketball revealed the first 10 names of the Dream Team members, was a sarcastic one.
“If I had anything to do with the selection,” Jordan casually said. “I would’ve selected my mother and my sister. I didn’t have anything to do with it.”
Jordan waited a long time to beat Isiah
As stated earlier, the squabble between Zeke and MJ did not start and end with their rivalry on the basketball court. Jordan made the All-Star team as a rookie, but instead of showcasing his high-flying dunks and daredevil drives in the midseason classic, Thomas allegedly engineered a ‘freeze-out’ to make Jordan look bad.
Isiah has maintained that there was never such a conspiracy, but Jordan never believed him and said that he used that humiliating experience to motivate himself to beat the 6-foot-1 guard. That time finally came in 1991 when MJ and company finally got over the Pistons hump. The beef between the two only got worse as Zeke led the Pistons’ infamous Game 4 walkout and refused to shake hands with the Bulls.
With MJ on top of the basketball world that year, he was always going to be the face of the Dream Team. As such, he had the power to influence who joined him on the squad. Given his history with Thomas, there were more than enough reasons not to want to play with him.
Magic said MJ had the last say
That theory was somewhat confirmed by Thomas’ good friend and Dream Team lead point guard Magic Johnson. According to Magic, Jordan only agreed to play for the team after he was given full autonomy to decide who was going with him to Barcelona.
“Michael was all about who was going to be on the team. It was more important…no, make that just as important, for Michael to have a good time as it was to play games,” said Magic.
There have been countless stories about why Isiah didn’t make that iconic team. Whether or not Mike kept him out of that squad, Thomas’ Dream Team snub will always be one of the most controversial stories in NBA history. It will always be a part of the legendary MJ-Zeke beef.