Isiah Thomas and Michael Jordan had an intense rivalry between them throughout their careers. In fact, the aftereffects of that are still noticeable even after the two players retired from the league a long time ago. But there was a time during Jordan’s final year in the league when Isiah Thomas wanted to be the bigger man. But Kobe Bryant had other plans in his mind.

Michael Jordan played his 14th and last All-Star game in 2003 when he was with the Washington Wizards. Although MJ was a reserve for the East All-Stars, Vince Carter gave Jordan his position so that he could start in his Final All-Star game.

Kobe ruined the final ending for Michael Jordan

The game went into double overtime. And Isiah Thomas, who was the head coach for the East All-Stars, wanted the game to end in the first overtime period, just so that Michael Jordan could go out on top.

Thomas narrated the story once in an interview. The East All-Stars were up 138-136 with 3 seconds left in the first overtime period. He called the other team team and told them that this was Michael Jordan’s last All-Star game.

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Thomas said, “It would be nice to let him go out on top.” But Kobe Bryant was having none of that. He looked Thomas dead in the eye and said, “Oh, he gotta earn it.” 

No matter how much respect Kobe had for Jordan, he wasn’t going to hand his mentor a win without the work. And Kobe went on to force the game into double overtime.

The game ended with a final score of 155-145 with the West All-Stars getting the victory over the East. Jordan praised Bryant while talking to Craig Sager, saying that Bryant could’ve easily made three free throws in a row.

Isiah Thomas did have respect for MJ as a player

Bryant held Jordan in the highest regard. And it felt right to him to not let his idol just be handed the win. He wanted MJ to work for it. But the fact that Jordan’s biggest rival wanted him to go out at the top did say a lot about their rivalry.

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It seemed as if, as much as Isiah hated Jordan, he did respect his craft and also respected him as a basketball player. The game could’ve just ended with Jordan’s signature fadeaway over Shawn Marion but Bryant wanted MJ to work harder for it.

Unfortunately, Jordan didn’t have much left in the tank as the West came out on top.