Isiah Thomas Says Michael Jordan Was 4th-Best Player He Ever Played Against
Michael Jordan couldn't hide his disdain for Isiah Thomas in the documentary, The Last Dance, and it doesn't appear Thomas is all that enamored with Jordan either.
CBS Sports HQ's Bill Reiter asked Thomas to list the best players he lined up against during his time with the Detroit Pistons. Jordan was fourth behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson.
Thomas explained his list to Reiter:
"When you put Jordan and his basketball team in the '80s, they weren't a very successful team. 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."
Any ranking of the great players is always subjective, yet Thomas' hierarchy is bound to raise some eyebrows.
The third and fourth episodes of The Last Dance laid out the rivalry between the Pistons and Chicago Bulls.
The Pistons served as the measuring stick for Jordan and Bulls in the late 1980s and early '90s. Detroit dumped Chicago out of the playoffs in three straight seasons before the Bulls finally got the better of "The Bad Boys" and eventually won an NBA title in 1991.
Conquering Thomas on the court apparently wasn't enough for Jordan as there are conflicting accounts as to whether MJ had a role in keeping Thomas off the 1992 Olympic team.
Time generally heals most wounds. In the case of Thomas and Jordan, the nearly three decades since the height of their battles on the hardwood have done little to quell the animosity.
