The political composition of the 1992 Dream Team
Let's not pretend excluding Isiah Thomas was ever a basketball decision. It was a political decision to please Michael Jordan.
It has become common knowledge at this point that Michael Jordan used his political influence to keep Isiah Thomas off the original Dream Team that dominated the Olympic Games in 1992. Whether that was the right decision or not, it was a political decision, not a basketball decision. There are people trying to argue that Thomas did not deserve to be on the team from a basketball standpoint. I cannot agree with this argument.
It is true that Thomas had declined as a player. He was 32 years old and would only play two more seasons before tearing his Achilles tendon. That injury also kept him off the 1994 Dream Team that dominated the FIBA World Championship tournament. But Larry Bird was nowhere near the player in 1992 that he was a few years earlier, and he had a spot on the Dream Team. If you are going to use Isaiah Thomas' statistical decline to justify excluding him, you have to exclude Bird also. Magic Johnson had been out of the league for a year.
From a basketball standpoint, Thomas deserved a spot. He led his team to two consecutive NBA championships, defeating both the mighty Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers. One could argue that had it not been for the phantom "foul" called on Bill Laimbeer, the Detroit Pistons would have also won the 1988 NBA Finals. He joined a 21-win team in 1981 and they improved to a 39 win team. He won a NCAA national championship with Indiana University.
Was John Stockton better and more deserving? Perhaps. But Stockton was on the 1996 Dream Team, so it would not have been a slight for him not to be on the team in 1992. And while Thomas led a Pistons team that was decried as playing dirty in the 1980's, the Utah Jazz were also described as a dirty team at times. Remember, Karl Malone busted Thomas open with an elbow strike that required 40 stitches to close. (And later brought a well-deserved "receipt" from Laimbeer.)
No, this was not a basketball decision. This was a purely political decision. I understand the reasoning for that decision, and given the ill will the Pistons had throughout the league and with fans outside of Michigan for the way they played, one could argue it was the correct decision. USA Basketball did not want to potentially lose Jordan if he refused to play with Thomas, but that would have been Jordan's decision to miss that historic opportunity. But from a basketball standpoint, if Bird and Johnson were on the team, Thomas deserved to be too. We should not pretend that this was ever anything but a political decision.