[BIRD33]

I did not watch the Dream Team documentary. I have been watching sports since the 60s and the only bigger injustice than Isiah Thomas not being on the team I can really think is the people who let Ali keep climbing into the ring after the last Frazier fight in 1975! Funny, Isiah never gets credit for his successes: lower agent percentages and higher pay for mid level players, Camby, Jermaine Lee O'Neal, Harrington, Bender, Stoudemire, and McGrady}. Even ZBo is looking pretty good now, not to mention Curry could actually round out. But his so called "failures" are blown up: Could get along with Dantley, called Bird another player, could not get along with Piston ownership at retirement, Raptor ownership undercutting him, David Stern undercut him on the CBA, Bird throwing him out because he wanted his own coach, the Knicks, FIU. But even when this kid was at Indiana University I liked how he came from the West Side of Chicago at 6'0" feet made his game fit the most demanding coach in the history of basketball and win a championship. Isiah then adjusted his game again to make the "Clippers North" champions and winners. He led the Union to limit agents' percentage. He was a successful local businessman and yes not without his own junk. The kid came off the West Side and got his college degree and became a millionaire. With today's' social media I do not think the selection committee could have hid behind MJ, Pippen and Falk; MJ, Pippen and Falk could not hide behind the selection committee. And Chuck Daly could not have just gotten away with shrugging his shoulders. Imagine LeBron saying he did not wish to play on the USA team if Rondo is on the team? Today's' ESPN and Social Media would be all over it.

Lawrence Bentley

Sam: I know a lot of fans enjoyed that Dream Team documentary as it was an entertaining look at one of the NBA’s seminal events. And Isiah isn’t exactly a sympathetic and beloved figure. But keeping him off that team was an embarrassment for the NBA and USA Basketball and shows what you know about life, that the guys with money decide everything. Jordan was responsible, though it was mostly a bluff. Jordan’s a better gambler than the NBA guys. So imagine how bad they are. Even David Stern said in that Jim Rome interview this week before it got ugly that leaving off Isiah was a huge mistake. Of course, it was his committee that did it. Jordan, of course, was the key. How could you have a Dream Team without the league’s best player? Jordan felt he’d be tired after that 1991-92 championship and a controversy filled season and didn’t want to play. Nike persuaded him to as it was a huge marketing opportunity. He doesn’t say no to them. But the committee didn’t know. So Jordan said he wouldn’t play if Isiah was on the team. The committee was only to glad to go along to get Jordan, who they also promised could play golf every day. They didn’t say they’d wash his underwear. But they didn’t say they wouldn’t. Isiah wasn’t liked very much around the league. Winning those two titles didn’t help the way they did it, though the league at the time was embracing the Bad Boy thing with a promotional campaign. Meanwhile, scientific genius Karl Malone had warned everyone not to play with Magic Johnson because they’d get AIDS. So it wasn’t like one happy family. And back then there wasn’t post game hugging. Jordan didn’t do much post game hand shaking after losses. Bird never did once. And what team didn’t have a guy most everyone disliked? Plus, Isiah helped out USA Basketball with an exhibition tour for the 1980 team after Jimmy Carter’s stupid boycott. The boycott, ironically, was because the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. The same Afghanistan the U.S. invaded a few years back. You know: No good deed goes unpunished.


http://www.nba.com/bulls/news/ask-sam-sa...61512.html