Isiah Thomas hopes his respect for Michael Jordan shows in ‘The Last Dance’

NBA Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas did several interviews for the highly anticipated ESPN documentary "The Last Dance," which focuses on Michael Jordan and the 1997-98 Bulls. Thomas, a Chicago-native, was the leader of the "Bad Boys" Pistons squad that was the ultimate litmus test for the Bulls in the late '80s. The Bulls famously got past the Pistons in the 1990-91 in the Eastern Conference finals in an extremely physical four-game series. After the decisive defeat in Game 4, Thomas and the Pistons infamously refused to shake hands with the Bulls.

Thomas has always maintained that he regrets that decision, and in an interview with The Detroit News, he discussed how he hopes his admiration for Jordan shines through:

I hope the full content of what I was trying to express in the admiration we all had for him as a player is shown from my comments. All of us who talked about him talked about how we admired how great a player he was, and we couldn’t stop him other than to double or triple-team him.

Though Thomas and Jordan were fierce rivals, the Chicago native made it clear that he has always had an immense amount of respect for MJ, and that he never personally heard Jordan say anything about keeping him off of the "Dream Team," an oft-discussed controversy in NBA history. The infamous non-handshake has been thought of as a primary reason why Thomas didn't feel completely accepted by his city during Jordan's tenure and also a possible reason for the Dream Team snub.

Thomas stated that while the handshake situation was unfortunate, the narrative surrounding the situation got out of hand. "When we beat Boston, (Larry) Bird didn’t shake none of our hands... I find it interesting the target shifts and the narrative changes.”

'The Last Dance' premieres April 19, 2020, on ESPN.