It’s been a long time since the Detroit Pistons and Chicago Bulls were rivals. In fact, I can’t recall the last time they were both good in the same year. But Isiah Thomas sure can.
For people who grew up watching the Bad Boys go to war with Jordan’s Bulls, things have changed quite a lot, as many younger fans have never really experienced the rivalry and those days have been long forgotten by some.
But Isiah Thomas is not one of those people, as he is still angry over how things went down with the Bulls and the Dream Team and that wound was again exposed a few years ago with the “Last Dance” documentary, even though at the time, most of the Pistons pretended not to care.
Thomas, who is from Chicago himself, is still smarting over comments that Chicago’s favorite son made in the documentary, and is doing his best to re-ignite the beef between the two teams.
Detroit Pistons: Isiah Thomas really doesn’t like Michael Jordan
In a recent interview, Thomas made it clear that he is not happy over the way he was portrayed in the documentary, which made Jordan the protagonist against the evil Pistons trying to stand in his way.
Thomas then took to Twitter to make it clear that he meant what he said:
My full quote don't shorten it or take it out context see below why! https://t.co/2Vckw2yb3d
— Isiah Thomas (@IsiahThomas) November 8, 2022
Here is Thomas’ full quote if you are wondering:
"“When I was watching The Last Dance, I’m sitting there and I’m watching it with my family and I’m thinking everything is good,” Thomas said. “And then this guy comes on television and he says that he hates me and then he calls me an ass****. And then I proceed to watch a whole documentary about him being an ass***. I’m like wait a minute, time out. Until I get a public apology, this beef is gonna go on for a long long time, ’cause I’m from the west side of Chicago.”"
This actually cracked me up for a few reasons. The first is that these are 60 year old men we are talking about who are still beefing over things that happened in the late 80’s and early 90’s.
Isiah has seemingly never recovered from Jordan keeping him off the Dream Team, and while I do agree with his assessment of Michael Jordan being the cavity of a backside, plenty of people would say the same about Thomas, especially after his time in the Knicks’ front office.
But as an old school Pistons fan, I am here for it anyway, as I miss rivalries in the NBA and the days when players actually disliked each other and didn’t hang out in the offseason and attend each other’s weddings the way they do now.
Nevertheless, it’s probably time for Thomas to let this one go or to just challenge Jordan to a fistfight on the west side and get it over with.