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

Isiah Thomas said and did things that fall under “When keeping it real goes wrong”!

Larry Bird:

What gets lost in the discussions about Larry Bird and his greatness comes in a few categories.

• Larry Bird rivals Michael Jordan in competitive spirit.
• He is a notorious trash talker. Like telling you what he was going to do and how type of trash talker. Then “look at the bench and give them some too” type of trash talker.
• Don’t piss the man off.
• Plus he kind of has a long memory when being slighted too.

If there was an indictment with Larry Bird, it came at the end of the 1987 Eastern Conference Finals. Larry Bird led the Boston Celtics to victory with 37 points, nine rebounds and nine assists in Game 7. Dennis Rodman made the statement that Bird was overrated because he was white. For the record, Rodman apologized.

Then Thomas told reporters that “if he were black, he’d be just another good guy.” The outrage commenced and despite Thomas insisting that he was joking and apologizing, it was a PR nightmare.

The timing at this juncture couldn’t have been worse. Larry Bird was the baddest dude in the NBA at the time winning three MVPs in a row and probably had just finished playing the best game of the season not a half-hour prior to the statement.

Then there’s 2003 when Larry Bird fired Isiah Thomas as coach of the Indiana Pacers. This statement by Ric Bucher, then of ESPN illustrates what people may have been thinking.

"Popular thinking had it that Isiah’s days were numbered once Bird was hired nearly two months ago. How, after all, could Bird stomach working with a man who supported Dennis Rodman’s assertion back in the mid-80s that Larry’s legend was largely due to his skin color? Or how could he not axe the guy who got the job at the expense of one of his best friends and former assistants, Rick Carlisle? And what better retribution than to not only dump Zeke but wait until all the other coaching jobs are filled so he has nowhere else to go?"

This is not saying that is what was going down, but many saw the irony in that type of thinking.

Karl Malone and John Stockton:

It’s a shame that John Stockton was caught up in this drama. In the documentary, Karl Malone said it didn’t matter if he was picked last, he got the call. Stockton probably felt the same way. He probably saw it as a vacation for his family. That was the type of guy he is.

At any rate, John Stockton made the team as the backup point guard. This is not a bum, he happens to be the NBA’s All-Time assist leader. This just in, no one else has more assists than John Stockton. He’s in the Naismith Hall of Fame (Twice!) and is the greatest orchestra-tor of the pick and roll ever. Let’s go back in history though.

• Back in the summer of 1991, he had collected his fourth of 10 consecutive All-NBA teams. Thomas had not made All-NBA since 1987. At that time it was the fifth straight time Stockton had beaten out Thomas for an award. 
• Stockton was considered more efficient, and at the time he was leading a faster, up-tempo offense.
• Finally the narrative of Stockton more willing to pass fit on a team with the most firepower ever collected on a basketball roster. Thomas’ one-on-one scoring wasn’t necessary. 

Well, two weeks into the season, Detroit hosted Utah two weeks and Thomas spent the night handing out business cards to John Stockton and the Utah Jazz. He poured 44 points on them like maple syrup, on 15-for-22 shooting, in a 123-115 Pistons win. That total was the highest in eight years for Thomas. Stockton got in a situation with Dennis Rodman with both players falling hard to the floor. That situation along with the perceived notion that Thomas showed Stockton up led to one of the most gruesome incidents in recent NBA history.

A month later, in Salt Lake City, Malone elbowed Thomas in the face. Thomas ended up getting 40 stitches. Malone got a one-game suspension and a $10,000 fine. It is believed that this was retaliation for what had happened in Detroit.

Well, let’s do the Los Angeles Lakers connection.