Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas on Thursday on FanDuel’s “Run It Back” show snapped over LeBron James slander and the hype surrounding Michael Jordan in the NBA’s GOAT debate. He challenged Jordan’s case as the league’s GOAT, continuing his well-known feud with the Chicago Bulls legend.
Thomas picked LeBron James as his GOAT. He criticized the hypocrisy of praising past players like Jordan while not giving enough credit to James, who is dominating the game and holding numerous records.
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“This is what I don’t understand about your era,” Thomas said. “You guys are playing with arguably the greatest player to ever play, and excuse me when I say this, but y’all treat him like he’s nothing.”
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“Instead of pumping your era up, y’all go back and say our era was the greatest,” he added. “You know, ‘Michael Jordan was the greatest, nobody could ever be greater than Michael Jordan,’ right? Ok, and then you turn around, and in your era, LeBron James is sitting there holding every single basketball record. I mean, every single one of them.”
The ongoing debate over who is the league’s GOAT is unlikely to be resolved. Isiah Thomas based his choice of James on statistics, where he pointed out that James is the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, while Jordan doesn’t lead in any statistical category.
The tension between Jordan and Thomas dates back to their playing days as Thomas’ “Bad Boy Pistons” era was known for its physicality on Jordan.
Isiah Thomas speaks on the breakdown of his relationship with Michael Jordan
Isiah Thomas on a Dec. 16 episode of the “NBA Beyond Court” show revealed when his relationship with Michael Jordan fell apart.
“We had friends and everything, so I always thought we was cool. … So I never thought we had this kind of beef, right? And when the Dream Team stuff happened, he came out quickly and said he had nothing to do with it.”
“I believed him, because I know how the media can twist and spin stuff, so I never really put that on him, right? But then when The Last Dance came out … He asked me, could I come do his video, and said, I can’t tell my story without you. … I hate Isaiah Thomas. That stuck, man, right?”
In ESPN’s The Last Dance documentary, Jordan denied that he explicitly asked for Thomas to be excluded and said team chemistry was the reason. However, old audio from a 2011 interview with Jordan resurfaced, where he told selection official Rod Thorn that he wouldn’t play if Isiah Thomas was on the team. Hall of Famer Reggie Miller said that Jordan essentially made sure Thomas wasn’t on the roster, but Thorn denied Jordan even mentioned Thomas in his conversation about joining the Dream Team.
Edited by Ubong Richard