Isiah Thomas Responds to Magic Johnson Accusations
As someone growing up as a basketball fan in Michigan, witnessing scenes like the one pictures, where Magic Johnson and Isiah Thomas would kiss before Pistons-Lakers games, I always assumed they were the best of friends.
Apparently not. Magic levied some pretty serious accusations at Thomas in his recently released book, including the fact that Johnson lobbied to keep Isiah off the 1992 Dream Team and Johnson accused Thomas of spreading rumors that Magic was gay after he tested HIV positive.
Isiah responded today, in an interview with Sports Illustrated's Ian Thompson:
"I'm really hurt, and I really feel taken advantage of for all these years,'' said Thomas, the Hall of Fame point guard and former NBA coach and executive, most recently with the Knicks. "I'm totally blindsided by this. Every time that I've seen Magic, he has been friendly with me. Whenever he came to a Knick game, he was standing in the tunnel [to the locker room] with me. He and [Knicks assistant coach] Herb [Williams] and I, we would go out to dinner in New York. I didn't know he felt this way.''
"Isiah killed his own chances when it came to the Olympics. Nobody on that team wanted to play with him. ... Michael didn't want to play with him. ScottiePippen] wanted no part of him. Bird wasn't pushing for him. Karl Malone didn't want him. Who was saying, 'We need this guy?' Nobody.''
Follow Technorati