This time, Michael Jordan can’t take that personally.
On Thursday morning, Jordan’s longtime rival and Detroit Pistons great, Isiah Thomas was asked by Dan Patrick to name his “Dream Team” during an appearance on Patrick’s radio show. Thomas set any bitterness aside from their decades-old rivalry and (wisely) placed MJ among his starting five.
You have to wonder if Jordan would’ve done the same.
Probably not.
Joining Jordan in Isiah’s hypothetical lineup were Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Tim Duncan, Larry Bird and Thomas himself at the point. The team has a heavy ‘80s flavor and a whole bunch of NBA championships.
All but Duncan played at least a portion of their career in the 1980s and none played later than 2015-16 (Duncan). So, LeBron, Kobe, SGA, Wemby or Jokic need not apply. Thomas and his four hypothetical teammates combined for 22 titles.
Making Thomas’ team even more unique and all that much more old school, is that he stuck to the traditional positions when choosing his roster. Positionless basketball this is not. Rather than go with the now in vogue process of selecting five players regardless of size and position, Isiah Thomas built an actual roster consisting of a traditional center, power forward, small forward, shooting guard and point guard.
That makes sense, considering Thomas knows a thing or two about team building. Following his 13-season NBA career, the man known as “Zeke” spent several seasons as the Raptors’ executive vice president before coaching the Pacers, then working as the Knicks’ president of basketball operations.
Oddly enough, Thomas’ teammate in the scenario presented by Patrick, Larry Bird, fired Thomas as Pacers coach in 2003 when Bird was serving as Indiana’s president of basketball.
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