Breaking the dominance of the Magic Birds and delaying the Jordan Bulls dynasty, the Pistons are the best in history, but they are not popular!

As one of the greatest stars in NBA history, Isiah Thomas was a good star and leader in his own playing days. His appearance not only ended the dominance of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird in the 1980s, but also eliminated Michael Jordan's Bulls three times in a row, ending the dynasty while delaying the start of another dynasty. This is probably a miracle that the entire NBA will find difficult to repeat. However, despite his great achievements on the court, he has always been unpopular both as a player and after retirement. So why is Thomas the target of public criticism? Let’s find out below!

The style of play is too violent and it is difficult to be recognized.

First of all, let's talk about Thomas' achievements in the NBA. He played for 13 years and averaged 19.2 points, 3.6 rebounds, 9.3 assists and 1.9 steals per game. Honors include 2 championship trophies, 2 All-Star Game MVPs, 1 FMVP, 12 All-Star lineups, 3 All-NBA First Teams and 2 All-NBA Second Teams, plus an assist title. These are enough to ensure that he becomes a top ten point guard in history. But compared to the glorious honors, his conduct on the court makes people feel a bit shameful.

During the Pistons' heyday, their playing style was extremely rough. Led by Thomas, Dennis Rodman, Rick Mahon, Bill Laimbeer and others seemed not to play basketball, but to have a basketball-boxing match. Many stars, represented by Jordan, have suffered from being violated in their games, especially the infamous "Jordan Rules", which has received resistance from many NBA stars and the media.

As the leader of the team, Thomas not only failed to stop his teammates from engaging in these rough behaviors, but as the charge captain, he used some dirty moves in the game again and again. In those years, the Pistons, except for Joe Dumars, who was recognized as a good guy, the rest of the starting players, role players, and even the water dispenser administrators were all martial arts masters with "martial arts". It is precisely because of such a dirty style of play that many fans and media do not recognize the value of their championship. Even some of the Pistons' own fans are a little embarrassed to speak up.

This is also a major reason why they were not popular with other teams in those years. The Palace of Auburn Hills is a nightmare for many players. Therefore, just his on-field behavior as a player caused Thomas' image to plummet.

He handles interpersonal relationships very poorly and has conflicts with many people.

Let’s talk about another problem of Thomas, which is poor interpersonal management. When Jordan participated in the NBA All-Star Game for the first time, Thomas discussed with other Eastern Conference players to isolate Jordan as a rookie. This made the young Jordan very embarrassed. In the end, the first All-Star Game also ended dismally. When Jordan learned about this, he was naturally furious, and the two had a feud since then. After that, they met four times in the playoffs. In the first three duels, Thomas' Pistons defeated Jordan in all of them, and once made Jordan doubt his life.

But even so, after every defeat, Jordan would politely shake hands with the Pistons players and give his blessings. But in the 1991 Eastern Conference Finals, Jordan led his team to sweep the Pistons. At the end of Game 4, Thomas actually took the lead and left the game early, which made Jordan even more annoyed. In the end, Jordan also fought back. After being selected for the Dream Team in 1992, he directly asked not to join Thomas. The relationship between the two completely broke down.

Not only that, Magic Johnson, who was once a close friend of Thomas, was also stabbed in the back by Thomas. The two used to kiss each other on the cheek during the duel. But in the summer of 1991, after the magician was unfortunately infected with the HIV virus, as a good friend, he not only failed to comfort the magician, but also added insult to injury by saying that HIV is a virus that only homosexuals can get. Such remarks not only greatly hurt the magician's emotions, but also discriminated against people suffering from HIV. This caused an uproar at the time. Although Thomas later retracted these words, the Magic directly severed ties with him, even though in an interview with the media in 2017, the two stated that they had reconciled.

But after all, it’s hard to make things right again, so Thomas lost his closest friend in the NBA. In addition, he also launched sharp criticisms against many stars. From a legendary player, he gradually became a disgusting existence, and he brought all of this on himself.

After retiring, he is still worried and has poor management and coaching skills.

Finally, let’s talk about some of the troubles Thomas caused after retiring. The Pacers gave him a coaching contract in the summer of 2000, but under his leadership, he turned a Finals-level team into a regular in the first round of the playoffs. After being laid off, he entered the NCAA to coach, but led the team to only a record of 18 wins and 44 losses, and was ridiculed by his students as the worst coach. In fact, it is very obvious that Thomas is not suitable to appear on the court as a manager or coach. But he just doesn't believe in evil, and there is indeed a team willing to give him a contract, and this enemy is the wealthy Knicks.

As a result, during his tenure as the Knicks general manager, he carried out a series of disastrous operations, introducing high-paid and low-performance players such as Stephon Marbury, Steve Francis, and Eddie Curry. He also had a serious conflict with the old coach Larry Brown over his coaching philosophy, which directly led to the Knicks' internal strife. In the post-Patrick Ewing era, the Knicks were completely reduced to the weaklings of the Eastern Conference due to Thomas's misbehavior, and were regarded as a black hole by the stars.. In addition, during a game, Marbury's father was in danger of life, but he deliberately concealed it and did not tell Marbury until the end of the game. As a result, the old horse missed the last meeting with his father, which caused huge criticism and doubts. In the end, amidst the chaos, he came to a tragic end. Now that he has retired from the world, he still failed to gain recognition from fans and the media.