The Last Dance: Did a Laker keep Isiah Thomas off the Dream Team?

Michael Jordan didn’t want Isiah Thomas on the Dream Team. Did you really think he had to say it out loud?

Michael Jordan, at least on Sunday night, stated that he did not come out and say that he did not want Thomas on the Dream Team. There are so many people who doesn’t believe him. Here’s Lake Show Life’s take on this. He’s telling the truth. To all the people getting riled up at that take, wise up.

He never had to. The NBA is a very small place. Rod Thorn is trying to put together a team for the Olympics and wants the World’s most recognizable player to give up 36 holes of golf to look at Isiah Thomas all summer. Does that make sense? Okay let’s put a Lakers spin on this and maybe the rest of the crowd will catch up.

Scenario:

You have the opportunity to have LeBron James come to your party. You hand him the guest list and he sees Kyle Kuzma’s trainer who publicly went on record saying that he was scared of Kawhi Leonard on the list. Think he’s going to show?   

Or will you use common sense and leave a guy off that will keep the star of your event in LeBron James happy to ensure that he will show up?

Rod Thorn was a member of the selection committee, whose charge was to clean up the mess left in 1988 when the Olympic team only finished with the Bronze medal. Oh by the way, Thorn just happened to be the guy that DRAFTED Michael Jordan back in 1984. It’s safe to assume that Rod Thorn picked up a few tendencies of Jordan’s likes and dislikes.

Here’s what the media will tell you.

Here’s Rod Thorn’s take on the situation courtesy of ESPN.

"“There was never anything in my conversation with [Jordan] that had to do with Isiah Thomas, period,” Thorn said Wednesday during an interview with ESPN’s Golic & Wingo. “He said, ‘I’ll do it.’ … Isiah’s name never came up during that conversation. And he never backtracked and said he didn’t want to do it from that time on, to those of us in the NBA office. “Now, if that in fact happened, then it happened with somebody else; because when I talked to him, he ended up saying he would definitely [play for the Dream Team].”"

Now let’s talk reality. Rod Thorn used common sense folks. That’s all that’s it. This John Stockton being a better fit is convenient. Isiah Thomas can run circles around Stockton. Rod Thorn has a relationship with Jordan and he called in a business favor for Jordan to play. Not just for the Olympics, but for the NBA so they can create a strong business relationship with FIBA basketball.

God bless former NBA deputy commissioner Russ Granik when he said Thomas was excluded partly because he and his teammates bolted the court before the final buzzer without congratulating Chicago in the playoffs. That’s for the media.

Larry Bird and the Boston Celtics did the same thing before Isiah and the Bad Boys did it. The difference was the Pistons walkout was done weeks before the selections were finalized. Isiah gave the committee an easy out with video evidence to justify the reason.