Michael Jordan is considered by many to be the greatest basketball player ever. He played for the Chicago Bulls and won 6x NBA championships with them. He had an unblemished record in the NBA finals with a 6-0 record. But before the Bull’s dominance in the 90s, a young Jordan had to go through the Bad Boy Pistons before finding success in the playoffs. Pistons star point guard Isiah Thomas once revealed the truth about the last time the Pistons and Bulls played against each other.

Michael Jordan’s biggest career challenge was overcoming the Detroit Pistons in the playoffs. The entire league struggled to find an answer for Michael Jordan, but the Bad Boy Pistons turned out to be Jordan’s Kryptonite. The Pistons knocked Jordan and the Bulls out of the playoffs numerous times.

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The Detroit Pistons of the 80s featured Isiah Thomas, Dennis Rodman, and Bill Laimbeer, who played with a physicality-first mentality and were ferocious on defense. But the reign of the Bad Boy Pistons came to an end in 1991 when Jordan and the Chicago Bulls swept them in the playoffs.

Isiah Thomas on losing against Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls

The rivalry between the Detroit Pistons and Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls began in the late 80s. The rivalry lasted for five years or so, ending in 1991 with the end of the Bad Boys Pistons era and the beginning of the Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls era.

In an interview in 1993, the All-Star point guard and 2x NBA champion Isiah Thomas revealed the truth about the controversial 1991 incident after the Eastern Conference Finals. In the last game of the series, after getting swept, the Pistons walked off the court before the end of the regulation.?

Thomas claimed that the Pistons didn’t do anything different than the Celtics or the Lakers of the previous generations.?“Am I a sore loser? Yes, I am a sore loser. I have never met a nice loser who wins,” he said.

“Losing does not sit well with me,”? he further added.

Thomas accepted that the loss bothered him, but he backed his actions by saying that the Celtics did the same thing to them when they won. Similar to the Pistons in 1991, Larry Bird and the Celtics after losing in the 1988 ECF walked off the court without shaking hands with the Pistons players.?

Isiah Thomas’ takeaway from the debacle

Thomas and the Detroit Pistons faced a lot of backlash after the incident. Upon reflecting, Thomas also accepted that if he had the chance to go back and change how it all went down, he would do it. In fact, he admitted that their loss taught him a valuable lesson. And he would improve on a lot of things if he could go back in time.

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The incident affected the reputation of Isiah Thomas the most. Thomas was left out of the Dream Team in 1992, which cost him an Olympic Gold Medal.?