3) Unlikable Michael Jordan and Chicago Bulls rivals: Isiah Thomas
It feels like the hatred between Jordan and the former Detroit Pistons legendary point guard, and two-time NBA Champion, Isiah Thomas still very much exists to this day. The Last Dance shed a lot of light on the relationship between, or lack thereof, Jordan and Thomas since their playing days in the NBA ended quite a while ago.
The scenes from The Last Dance where Thomas gave his excuses for not shaking the Bulls hands in that playoff series in the early 1990’s showed all of the friction between these two teams. There is definitely still some bad blood between those “Bad Boys” Pistons players and Jordan and the Bulls from those playoff series.
Thomas is one of the few opponents that Jordan had a losing record against in his career in both the regular season and the playoffs. Jordan had a regular season record of 19-24 in his career against Thomas, and 10-12 in the playoffs. But Thomas called it quits in the NBA in the mid-1990’s, just before Jordan and the Bulls got that second three-peat of the decade.
There is also that controversy that existed between “Zeke” and MJ for the 1992 United States Olympic Team that went to Barcelona and absolutely dominated. It’s hard to argue that Thomas didn’t deserve to make that team, but likely due to some input from Jordan, he was included in that mix of legends that played in the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.