Rod Thorn Says Don’t Blame Michael Jordan For Isiah Thomas Being Left Off The Dream Team

While Isiah Thomas says he was “personally hurt” to be left off the 1992 Dream Team, the team’s architect said he never discussed Thomas with rival Michael Jordan.

“There was never anything in my conversation with (Jordan) that had to do with Isiah Thomas, period,” Rod Thorn, the longtime NBA executive, 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.”

Thomas and his Detroit Pistons teammates walked off the floor with shaking hands with Jordan and the Chicago Bulls after losing in the 1991 Eastern Conference Finals. Jordan has never forgiven Thomas for that and called him an “a—hole” in “The Last Dance.”

Thomas said that’s how things were done at the time, and pointed out that the Boston Celtics walked off the floor in 1988 after losing to the Pistons. Jordan isn’t buying it and said he shook the Pistons hands after losing in the playoffs in 1989 and ‘90.

“I tried to do everything correctly and I thought I should’ve made the Dream Team,” Thomas said this week on ESPN. “However, I wasn’t a part of it, that hurt me. And looking back, if I’m not a part of the Dream Team because of a lapse of 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 pointed out that several prominent players were left off the Dream Team aside from Thomas, Reggie Miller, James Worthy and Dominique Wilkins.

“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.”

Asked why Thomas was left off the Dream Team, which rolled to the gold medal at the Barcelona Olympics and will be featured in an upcoming episode of “The Last Dance.”

“That’s a good question, because Isiah was a great player, a fantastic player,” Thorn said. “There was some controversy with the Pistons regarding not shaking hands with the Bulls — there was some bad blood, obviously, there. … But when we ended up going with the first 10 guys, he did not end up making the team.”