Shannon Sharpe: “Who would you say are the five toughest players you’ve ever had to face?”
Isiah Thomas: “You can just go by the winning records, right? Magic, Kareem, Bird, Doctor J, and then I would say Jordan.”
Listen to Colin Cowherd defend NBA Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas after the 12-time All-Star, and 2-time NBA Champion said that Michael Jordan was only the ‘fifth toughest’ player he’s ever faced.
Thomas’ comments obviously went viral, as his appearance on Shannon Sharpe’s ‘Club Shay Shay’ podcast quickly became the biggest sports story of the day on Wednesday.
But despite the backlash to Thomas’ comments, Cowherd actually comes to the defense of Isiah, doing a segment on how the average NBA fan just needs to admit that Jordan’s career and legacy wasn’t immaculate like many have been led to believe, and it’s not necessarily wrong to legitimately poke holes in many aspects of his career.
Jordan's Bulls and Isiah's Pistons teams made for some of the best rivalry games in league history, and both players have never been very complimentary of each other in public, and through the media.
Perhaps the lasting image of the rivalry was when the Pistons infamously walked off the court before the buzzer sounded after being swept by Chicago in Game 4 of the 1991 Eastern Conference, and the entire team besides Joe Dumars and former Pistons forward John Salley, refused to shake hands with Chicago, including isaiah, who walked right past the Bulls bench, and quickly ducked away back to the locker room.
Check out the full segment above, as well as the segment on Shannon’s podcast below.
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