Also, his actual claim to the 1992 Olympic spot is ludicrous in and of itself. The Pistons won 48 games and were knocked out in the first round by the Knicks. The Knicks at this point featuring Pat Ewing and....well, a bunch of role players. Advanced stats suggest that Thomas was the third most important player on his team, behind Rodman and Dumars. You could argue that Rodman was extremely limited offensively and that he doesn't count, but you still have Dumars. He was at that point a better player overall than Thomas. The journalists agreed, and Isiah did not make the All-NBA teams. Here's a dirty little secret. He had not made one since 1987. Remember that starting in 1989, there were 3 All-NBA teams. That means that by the time he was 28, Thomas was not considered a top 15 player in the NBA by those who voted.
Here's who did make it onto those All-NBA teams:
Now, here is the Dream Team.
Christian Laettner was there because as Barkley said, someone had to carry the bags. Bird and Magic were there as legacies, so those three spots had different criteria. The other 9 spots all went to the members of All-NBA 1st or 2nd teams. That is completely logical, as the ten best players in the nation should be your Dream Team. I was actually a little surprised how the two lined up exactly. Since it was 9 and not 10 players that were needed after 3 were selected on other grounds, someone was going to lose out. That someone, and I wouldn't have called it before I looked this up, was Tim Hardaway. Hardaway had a really good season and an even better one right before, and the Warriors won 55 games in 1992. He might have been hurt by his age/lack of experience. It was only his third season in the league, and Stockton had him beat there. If they didn't ridiculously select Laettner, Hardaway was probably the best pick, and was a better player at the same position than Thomas in 1992.
If you look at the 3rd team, seems like the voters also though Kevin Johnson and Mark Price were better players than Thomas. Hell, KJ's teammate Hornacek might have had a stronger claim to a spot than Thomas, based on how they played that year. Oh, and look at that. Who else made the 3rd team? That Rodman guy. Maybe the advanced metrics weren't the only "person" who thought Rodman was more important to that Detroit team than Thomas.
Oh, and let's look at one more thing. All-Defensive teams.
Hilariously for Isiah,
both Rodman and Dumars were considered top-5 defenders in the league by the voters. John Stockton is a very nice top-10. Micheal Williams is now largely forgotten, but he was a very solid player on both sides of the ball in the early 90s until injuries completely derailed his career. Oh, and he was also the Pistons 3rd string PG as a rookie when they won their first championship. Williams also had higher box plus/minus and VORP than Thomas in 1992. They were even equal in those categories the year before!
So in conclusion: **** off Isiah! You were maybe a top 10 point guard in the league in 1992. Other than those listed above, the advanced numbers also show Terry Porter, Mark Jackson, and Michael Adams being more impactful, as well as a few others being on a similar level. The only was Thomas could've made that team is as a legacy, and there were already two of those. And in his prime of primes, Thomas was never at the level of Larry or Magic.
