"He calls me an a–hole and says I hate him" - Isiah Thomas opens up about feeling unfairly vilified by Michael Jordan's version of history

Yahoo

05-07-2025

"He calls me an a–hole and says I hate him" - Isiah Thomas opens up about feeling unfairly vilified by Michael Jordan's version of history originally appeared on Basketball Network.
When "The Last Dance" dropped in April 2020, it did more than revive old highlights. It reopened wounds.
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For Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas, those 10 episodes were a nostalgic look back at the dynasty of the '90s Chicago Bulls and became a moment of public re-litigation. But Thomas wasn't prepared for the kind of portrayal he found himself receiving from a man who had once shared the same hardwood.
This wasn't just another basketball docuseries. This was the definitive cultural canonization of Michael Jordan. Like many others, Thomas had spent hours sitting down with producers, offering what he thought would be part of a broader look at the era.
Last Dance portrayal
By the time The Last Dance reached the public, the world was locked indoors, sports were suspended and Jordan's voice had the floor all to himself.
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Viewers anticipated behind-the-scenes insight into one of the most dominant teams in basketball history. Zeke, like many others from that time, expected to see history remembered with some balance. But the narrative, as it aired, left him deeply unsettled.
"Forgive me when I say this, but I watch a whole documentary about [Jordan] being an a—hole and he calls me an a—hole and says I hate him," Thomas said. "[Hate] is a big word. Ain't nobody said that about me, a former player, current player, ain't nobody ever said I hate him."
The two-time champ was by no means wasn't a saint. The tension between him and Jordan wasn't manufactured by the camera. It was real, raw and decades old. Their rivalry reached a boiling point in the 1991 Eastern Conference finals, when Thomas and the Detroit Pistons famously walked off the court without shaking hands after being swept by the Bulls.
The moment became mythologized, a permanent ink stain on their dynamic. But what The Last Dance seemed to imply was deeper than Thomas was part rival and part villain.
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Still, Thomas wasn't naive to how he and his Bad Boy Pistons were seen. Those late-'80s and early-'90s Detroit teams led by him and coach Chuck Daly made their name on grit and elbows, playing with a level of physicality that blurred the line between strategy and outright intimidation.
From their bruising style to controversial moments, like the famous Jordan Rules used to wear down Jordan, the Pistons embraced their role as basketball's disruptors. But Thomas, a 12-time NBA All-Star and two-time champion, believed his contributions deserved better than a hit piece cloaked in nostalgia.
Related: Donovan Mitchell hints about his long-term plans with the Cavaliers after being judged for leaving Utah: "Just being able to call a place home and be there'
Thomas' rift
If the documentary was supposed to settle the score, it only complicated things. Thomas recounted how Jordan didn't reach out after the episodes aired to soothe the sting.
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"My phone starts ringing," Thomas said. "[Jordan's] former teammates, his inner circle [call me and say], 'Michael didn't mean that, he didn't come off the right way,' so forth and so on. Okay. I never hear from Michael. Now I'm hearing from everybody around him and now every interview I do, including this one, I have to answer the Michael Jordan question."
Zeke wasn't simply responding to a slight; he was reckoning with how history was being written. That's the power of the lens, of course.
A man can spend his whole career shaping moments, but in the editing room, even legends lose control. Jordan's version of events became the final cut and for Thomas, that meant his name kept coming up not for what he did on the court, but for how he was framed in someone else's story.
Thomas ranks among the most accomplished point guards the game has ever seen. He averaged 19.2 points and 9.3 assists over his 13-year NBA career, all with the Pistons. He led Detroit to back-to-back championships in 1989 and 1990 and was named Finals MVP during their first title run. But instead of celebrating that history, he found himself locked in an eternal back-and-forth with a narrative that wouldn't let him go.
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However, the tension between Thomas and Jordan doesn't start with the documentary. It dates back to 1992, when Thomas was left off the original Dream Team — a snub many still believe MJ orchestrated behind the scenes.
That exclusion was never just about basketball. And when The Last Dance aired nearly three decades later, it tore that scar wide open for a new generation of fans, most of whom had no idea there was another side to the story.
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This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Jul 3, 2025, where it first appeared.