Thursday, October 22nd, 2009 at 12:15 pm  |  72 responses

Beef: Isiah vs Magic

I’m guessing that these two won’t be kissing on the cheek anytime soon: “When he heard the criticisms from his former friend Magic Johnson in a soon-to-be-released book, Isiah Thomas said he’d had enough. And so he began to fight back. ‘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.”’

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  • http://www.slamonline.com/www.blacknaga.com sherman

    Reading through all the comments provides much more context to a truly sad and tragic affair. Now I think I understand why to highly successful brothers could come to blows like they did and let their friendship fade away like it has: Both of these guys are butt hole surfers! They make me feel good that sometimes I’m such a monster to friends and loved ones…

  • KH10

    you dont have to be a nice guy to be a great ballplayer??
    a lot of the all time greats sound like douches, being ultra competitive is great in sports but not in life.

  • Teddy-the-Bear

    Bernard King and Patrick Ewing are both cool dudes and nice people, so all is not lost for 80′s era ballplayers.

  • ClydeSays

    Magic could just sit on Isiah at this point and end this beef.

  • Steve

    Simmons bags Ike the coach, Ike the GM and Ike the business man, but he gives major props to Ike the player. Not sure anyone can argue with that assessment?

  • Steve

    exactly KH10 … that is why the whole sports people are role models thing is overblown. I wouldn’t want my daughter near ANY of these guys (especially magic, but that goes without saying I guess), but I am still more than happy to toss over some of the hard earned to watch them on the court. The good thing I guess is that the person they are is glossed over until after they stop playing so for those of us who idolised these guys in the ’80s finding out now what they are really like isn’t as crushing as it would have been at that age. That is why the Kobe/Colorado thing stung more than anything these guys do now … again except for Magic.

  • whalleywhat

    For all the things Isaiah’s messed up, and all the people who resent him, this is cold as hell on Magic’s part, and he’s either looking to sell a lot of books or he’s been holding all this inside for a long time. Even if all of this is true, it’s for men to work out between themselves, not air their dirty laundry like this. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth and looks bad on the league.

  • OldeSchoole

    My two cents:
    Isiah-possibly greatest pound for pound player, killer mentality and well-hated, not very good at anything after professionally (except not too bad drafting), ethics concerning if half of what happened in New York true, can fall into protecting his hide (witness the daughter story) but one thing I don’t get the sense of him being is a backstabber (possible exception MJ in ’85). He could be putting out all of those names to back up his story as a front, but I find it hard to believe he’s going to throw all of those names out there to back him up without at least some of them being able to vouch for him. The all star game campaign to get Magic into the game sounds too legit to be false, at least to me. The biggest question to me is the he said/he said about the sexuality questions (although this one I might tend to believe Magic and Lon Rosen).

    Magic, even if most/all of it’s true, certainly looks cowardly if not vindictive in this kiss-and-tell. If Isiah even is mostly true about getting him in the All-star game, freezing him out of the Olympic team looks even more slimy if Magic accepted Isiah’s help after the freeze out he would never admit until now. I’m not excusing Isiah if he really did raise those questions about how Magic got HIV, but Isiah was the first to embrace him and kiss him (which Karl Malone and other players, even teammates wouldn’t even dare do up until then) at the all-star game, to break the ice. Maybe Isiah had an ulterior motive that day, but I find it hard to believe he did. Isiah, as potentially ugly as he can be at times, sounds like he really still thought there might be a future repair of the relationship, read more into Magic’s cordial nature than Magic did this decade, and probably truly felt backstabbed. Witness the emotion in the last quote of the SI article:
    “People who know me and my family and what I stand for will laugh at Magic and his beliefs. I’m tired of getting punched and people using me because they think I’m not going to say anything. Those days are over. Game on.”

  • http://slamonline Negetivekreep

    It took a whinning, overly sensetve gangster rapper, for you to admit that Jordan Is a dick. ( yes kids: Peer pressure is a motherfu(ker.) And all it took For you to hate Magic was turning on ZEKE! playoffs?!!! practice?, we talkin about practice??
    This is Isiah we talking about right?…..The same guy who behind closed doors was blackballed from the dream team by Jordan due to Jordans massive ego. That was ok though. To write about it in a book 16 yrs after the fact, oh…GASP! thats a NO NO. Remember when phil wrote that amazing tell all you read every night before bedtime? You know, the one about Kobe?? Awww but that was just ‘real talk’ right?
    EEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!
    None of you kids or man boys for that matter ever liked Magic in the first place.
    Did you really understand or appreciate his game? nope. Dont front. “The seed” your name never fit you so perfectly as it did in this thread. One sentance into your comment and whose name is falling out of your baby lips? JORDAN. Ah yes, The man with the golden heart, after all he practically gives his shoes away to the needy. And the The Thai children whove produced his shoes in sweatshops over the years…They thank god every morning for that mans massive heart. If his gambling addiction had’nt gotten his father killed, we would never fully understand what winning meant. Not like we did when he won #4. So thanks for bringing MJ up to add a lil ballance and perspective. Now back to the Magic bashing.

  • http://none The Philosopher

    At the end of the day, life is too short. There are better things to ponder about in life, and there are worse things going on to think about.

  • http://www.slamonline.com Dave

    Brad Long: ” I don’t think I even have to explain Isiah to you. ”
    I LOLed pretty hard.

  • http://www.slamonline.com Dave

    “For you to hate Magic was turning on ZEKE! playoffs?!!! practice?, we talkin about practice??”
    That non-sequitur gave me whiplash.

  • Rondo

    what happened was that, according to magic in his book, Isiah spread rumors about Magic being gay or bisexual after he got HIV and thats why he didnt want isaih on the drem team… thats all he said, there aint no beef

  • tavoris

    Allenp…it wasn’t necessarily his game…it was the polarizing nature of his personality. How many of his teammates speak out for him? Honestly, he’s probably as difficult to play with as Jordan, because they both are complete dix. Jordan, however, was at the height of his popularity-and HAD to be included. Isiah was at the end of his career, and his diminished ability didn’t overshadow the fact that he’s a self-serving prick.

  • iLL wiLL

    Grimey!

  • http://www.twitter.com/Th3_R3al_Chris Th3_R3al_Chris

    Score one for Isiah.

  • Adam

    Isn’t this Jackie Mac’s book???

    How can so many people side with someone who threw their own daughter under the bus in regards to an emergency room visit? Isiah, we now have come to realize, has deep rooted emotional problems. He didn’t just gain these issues, he’s had them forever. But 20 years ago we never saw them, because he was on a winning team.

    Again, Magic also wasn’t the person who went on record for saying this, an attorney close to Magic was the person quoted in Jackie’s book that Isiah was spreading rumors that Magic was Gay. Is it a shock to anyone that Isiah would stab his good friend in the back, keeping in mind he throw his daughter under the bus, and sexually harasses employees?

    and for the dream team, if Magic knew Isiah was emotionally unstable, than he made the right call in not fighting for Isiah. Who was that coach again that coached the 92 dream team? Chuck Daily, and you don’t think he could have added Isiah at any point to the roster out of pure stroke? If any 3 players called the shots on the roster it would be Michael, Magic, and Bird; having played against Isiah, I think they knew he would murder any team spirit amongst the others.

  • bulldog

    Step #1) Laugh
    Step #2) Read Magic’s book/Isiahs auto rebuttal book
    Step #3) Laugh
    Step #4) See both Isiah and Magic laugh all the way to the bank
    Step #5) %#@#@$!@$%#@!$#

  • tavoris

    bulldog…you mean Magic & Bird (since they’re the ones profiting, while Isiah has to answer questions to the Florida International school paper)?

  • http://sdifjlc.com Jukai

    I’m going to withhold a 100% opinion of this until I read the book… but more and more Magic is looking like a snake… I still gotta see what Isiah said about Magic. It could be pretty bad, and maybe you can’t blame Magic.

  • http://slamonline.com Allenp

    Tavoris
    I don’t understand how Isiah would have murdered team spirit. The Pistons were one of the closest and toughest teams in the league and were regular contenders when he was their leader. And they were less talented than both the Lakers and Celtics.
    I think cats held a grudge. Point blank, they wanted to stick to Isiah. I’m not saying dude was a saint, the way he refused to shake Jordan’s hand when they got swept was beyond wack, but it was mainly because he was crazy competitive, just like MJ. Isiah wouldn’t have been the problem, the egos of all those other cats was the problem. Jordan and then wouldn’t let it go.
    I think John Stockton’s comments about Isiah really should have opened more eyes. The media played it like Stockton and Isiah hated each other, but then when the truth comes out, Isiah was a MENTOR to dude. That right there was shocking. Nobody knew because Isiah wasn’t seeking publicity, he was helping out a fellow baller.
    Isiah has been a snake, he has done some dirty stuff, but I’ve rarely seen him be sneaky and stuff. When he’s turned on folks, it’s been obvious and open. I think he’s gotten a bad rap as a human being.

  • blcknewyork

    I will always love Isiah. He was a joy to watch. The Dream Team was not only for the players, it was for the fans also. To see John Stockton given precedence over Isiah was one of the worst occurences in NBA history. Everyone involved should be ashamed of themselves. This is something you would expect from the WNBA. The thing about it is most of my peers started watching basketball around 89-90. We got heavy doses of Ewing, Pippen, Jordan ect in the 90′s, But the Dream Team was an opportunity to see Magic, Bird, and Isiah play.

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