Isiah Thomas calls out Michael Jordan for portraying Jerry Krause in bad light in "The Last Dance": "Man's dead, you ain't gotta do that"
The rivalry between NBA legends Michael Jordan and Isiah Thomas remains strong. Thomas has revealed his displeasure with how Jordan and his Bulls teammates traded former president Jerry Krause.
Isiah Thomas was a superstar floor general for the Detroit Pistons. He would go on to become the engine behind the "Bay Boys" Pistons. His team was responsible for winning back-to-back championships in 1989 and 1990. Eventually, the Pistons had to deal with another contending Eastern Conference team on the rise.
The team was the Chicago Bulls and included superstar shooting guard Michael Jordan. Chicago and Detroit would go on to have a number of vicious battles in the NBA playoffs. Eventually, Chicago would "take the torch" from the Pistons, after sweeping them in four games.
The series was highlighted during a part of the Chicago Bulls Netflix documentary "Last Dance". During that same documentary, it was revealed how the Bulls players felt about former team president Jerry Krause. The relationship between Krause and players such as Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen was a story that gained traction during the documentary.
Appearing recently on "The Pivot Podcast," Isiah Thomas revealed that he was disappointed in how the Bulls players treated Krause. Thomas went into detail about how he felt Krause was disrespected "for a president or general manager." The NBA legend also brought up the fact that Krause's family had to go through watching the documentary and seeing it.
"Watching that doc, here's the thing that I was most disappointed in. The way I see them treat Jerry Krause."
"Now imagine you get on your team bus and the President of the team is sitting there and you walk by the President of the team and you making jokes and you treating him bad and that's accepted now, we all athletes, nowhere in the history of the game have I ever seen such disrespect for a president or a general manager, even if you don't like him."
"Now here's the other thing that was disappointing the Man (Jerry Krause) is dead. His kids. His family. People are watching that you ain't gotta do that. I can't respect that. I can't respect that. Not a fan or everybody else. Jerry Krause won six championships, put together, you know, Nice squad. So the bad boys. We were so bad, right?"
Isiah Thomas comments on Michael Jordan and Jerry Krause of the Chicago Bulls
The Chicago Bulls' "Last Dance" documentary was a sensation that swept the basketball world. Although the series was released in 2020, fans are still buzzing about the stories that were revealed to this day.
The documentary was set to focus on Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls' final championship of the 1997 season. Throughout the documentary, a number of behind-the-scenes stories were revealed to the public.
Horace Grant called out Michael Jordan on parts of The Last Dance - "lie, lie, lie"- and Stacy King, also part of the first threepeat team, said he was upset with the Jerry Krause sections: "I was really hurt by that & I think a lot of us were." Do MJ's ex-teammates have a point? https://t.co/iHPzppg6OR
One of the biggest stories involved the toxic relationship between president Jerry Krause and the Chicago Bulls players. A number of players have since stood up for Krause, who thrived as an executive with the team. Superstars such as Scottie Pippen, who had a lengthy contract dispute with the team, were vocal about his time with the team.
Michael Jordan didn't hold back during the documentary when it came to Jerry Krause. The NBA legend clearly wasn't a fan of Krause, as was shown on numerous occasions as he would mock the team president. That didn't sit well with most basketball fans, including NBA legend Isiah Thomas.