Reggie Miller had no problems answering a very sensitive topic regarding The Dream Team that took the 1992 Barcelona Olympics by storm. During an interview with Dan Patrick on The Dan Patrick Show, Miller outright agreed that Bulls legend Michael Jordan was culpable for Isiah Thomas being snubbed from the roster.
Patrick: Do you think Michael single-handedly said ‘I don't want Isiah on The Dream Team'?
Miller: Yes. Isiah Thomas should have been on that '92 Dream Team. And people ask ‘who would you have taken off?' — John Stockton, Clyde Drexler — one of those two guys. Christian Laettner. One of those three guys. Isiah Thomas should have been on that team.
Stockton, Drexler, and Laettner might not be feeling too great after hearing what Miller had to say, but this is how talks go when it comes to snubs — there are only so many spots and not everybody can make it in.
Out of the three, Laettner is likely the obvious selection, as he had yet to even play a minute of professional basketball by the time he was called up to make that team. While he averaged double digits for the first eight years of his career, he's the only player from that roster who does not fit the term “star” in a star-laden team.
Miller, who has taken to broadcasting after finishing his playing career in the league, was asked if his take was factual or just a nuance of opinion on the rumors that the Bulls legend snubbed his Pistons rival.
“I wouldn't say for a fact, but those are the unwritten rules that people talk about,” said Miller. “I wouldn't say it's MJ alone.”
Patrick then asked how Thomas was snubbed out of a team coached by his very own Pistons head coach Chuck Daly, but Miller was quick to interject:
“It had nothing to do with Chuck Daly because at the time, this was commissioner Stern putting the team together,” said Miller about the Bulls, Pistons, IT and MJ dynamic.
Touching back on the Thomas snub, Miller noted how he thinks the conversation went down:
“I wouldn't say he said ‘these are the guys I want.' I believe MJ probably said ‘Okay, I'll do it, but Isiah cannot be on this team.”
At this point, it's all conjecture — but it surely seems there are people who think Jordan had something to do with why Thomas fell short of a Dream Team selection, something he rues to this day.
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