Why do people keep repeating this shyt ? Its all over social media .
First of all, its a team game. Isiah didn't beat Magic, Bird and Jordan in their primes. The Pistons beat the Lakers, Celtics and Bulls.
Secondly, if you want to break it down. Did he really?
(1) Magic Johnson barely played the 1989 NBA finals. He had a very bad hamstring injury.
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However, starting off guard Byron Scott suffered a hamstring injury in practice before Game 1 and was ruled out of the series. Then with the Lakers leading early in game 2, Magic Johnson pulled his hamstring and would also be out of the series. The Lakers had won two straight NBA championships in 1987 and 1988 but without their starting backcourt, their chances were doomed for a "3-peat."
1989 NBA Finals - Wikipedia
So Magic essentially missed 3 games and Byron Scott who was a very good player missed the entire series.
(2) Bird was battling horrible bone spurs in both feet that started to bother him towards the end of the 87/88 season. Anytime he tried to shoot a jumpshot or move on the court, he was in great pain.
However, something was noticeably wrong with Larry during the playoffs. Bird, though never a fast player, always displayed quickness while being light on his toes. During this post season Larry's feet looked very heavy. He often looked distracted and out of the flow of the offense. On many occasions, Bird rushed his shot and, dare I say, even forced more then a few bad shots.
Uncharacteristically his points, rebounds and field goal percentage drastically dropped in the postseason.
Many heralded the Detroit defense for holding Larry to 10 ppg in the conference finals. What many didn't know was that Larry Bird was hampered by painful bones spurs in both feet.
Larry Bird: The Sudden and Saddening Demise Of a Basketball Legend
Bird will have surgery to remove the bone spurs and pretty much miss the entire 88/89 season and he was never the same player after that.
(3) Michael Jordan had a very young and inexperienced Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant. In 1988, the Bulls were just happy to make it out of the first round when they lost to Detroit in the 2nd round. Pippen and Grant were still rookies. Pippen only had become a starting 5 player in the previous series against Cleveland. Prior to that he was coming off the bench.
In 89, The Bulls were pretty much the huge underdog in every series they played, eliminating 2 50+ win teams that had homecourt advantage in the first 2 rounds (Cleveland and New York) before finally falling to the 60+ win Pistons in 6 which just had a much better and stronger team than the Bulls and had an all-star like Aguirre coming off their bench. While the Bulls team was just ordinary other than Jordan. Pippen even suffered a concussion early in the decisive game 6 after Laimbeer smashed him. Pippen missed the entire game.
In 90, we all know what happened. The Bulls took them to 7 and Pippen again had problems with a migraine in the decisive elimination game.
Not taking anything away from the Pistons. All Championship teams benefit from an injury or another. They were a tremendous team and deserved Champions, but this thing about painting Isiah Thomas as this underrated figure that was somehow close to Jordan, Bird and Magic as a player is total bullshyt.
He was nowhere near as good as either one of those 3 and didn't eliminate them. He usually played very poorly against the Bulls and was an inconsistent and inefficient.
He was a great player but Magic, Steph and Oscar are all much better players .
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, but Isiah beat prime larry bird
, but joe dumars was the finals mvp
. Mike never stood a chance
