Though he was clearly one of the best point guards of the time, Isiah Thomas was left off of the Dream Team in 1992. Some thought Bulls legend Michael Jordan may have played a role in Thomas' omission from the roster, but the team's architect, Rod Thorn, says that wasn't the case.
As part of a recent interview with ESPN, Rob Thorn, a longtime NBA executive who played a key role in assembling the Dream Team roster, denied the claim that Michael Jordan somehow kept Thomas off the team.
“There was never anything in my conversation with (Jordan) that had to do with Isiah Thomas, period,” Rod 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 do it.”
As Central Division foes, the Bulls and Pistons grew into one of the hottest rivalries the NBA has ever known. Detroit actually sent Chicago home in the '89 and '90 Eastern Conference Playoffs, en route to a pair of championships.
The tide finally shifted in the 1991 Eastern Conference Finals, however, as the Bulls managed to sweep the Pistons. It was after this series that Thomas and his teammates decided to skip out on the traditional handshake line.
During a recent appearance on ESPN's Get Up, Thomas noted that he paid a “heavy price” for refusing to shake hands with the Bulls after the '91 ECF. He also noted that he would be disappointed if this act played a factor in his omission from the Dream Team.
“I thought I should've made that Dream Team,” Thomas said on Monday's episode of Get Up, via ESPN. “However, I wasn't a part of it — that hurt me.
“Looking back, if I'm not a part of the Dream Team because a lapse in emotion in terms of not shaking someone's hand — if that's the reason why I didn't make the Dream Team, then I am more disappointed today than I was back then when I wasn't selected.”
Thorn was on the selection committee for the Dream Team — a now-famous super team that cruised to a gold medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. He was also the Bulls' general manager from 1978 to 1985 and played a big role in Chicago's decision to draft Jordan in 1984.
There was a fair amount of speculation that Thomas was not part of the Dream Team because Michael Jordan would only participate if Thomas was not on the roster. Still, Thorn says Thomas' name was never brought up in his conversations with Jordan:
“My conversation with Michael was strictly about Michael, about Michael playing,” Thorn said. “Obviously the committee was hopeful that Michael would play, because he was the No. 1 player in the league at that time and the No. 1 player in the world and the most popular player in the world at that time.
“But he didn't say anything to me about (Thomas), and I certainly had no reason to bring it up either.”
It's unfortunate that Thomas was left off the Dream Team, but he's not the only great player who didn't make the cut. NBA stars like James Worthy, Reggie Miller and Dominique Wilkins were also left out.
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