Many people have wondered how the Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan would have done head-to-head against the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, Isiah Thomas, who spent 13 years as a Bull. I’ve been curious about this topic for years, but I never found an answer I was comfortable with, so I decided to take it upon myself to research the topic.
Michael Jordan vs. Isiah Thomas, 1983. It seemed like a no-brainer that the Miami Heat would come back down to earth after winning their first title. Even with Toni Kukoc and the bench scoring, the Bulls were still the best team in the East. But as the series continued, the Bulls proved to be as tough as anyone could have imagined. That’s why, nine years later, I was asking a group of Chicagoans who they thought was the better player: Michael Jordan or Isiah Thomas.
Isiah Thomas had a great NBA career. He won two championship titles with the Detroit Pistons, and is the only player in NBA history to record five consecutive triple-doubles. He also won the All-Star MVP in 1991, and was named to the NBA All-Defensive First Team three times. In 2005, he was voted into the NBA All-Time 50th Anniversary All-Star team, and in 2006 he was inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame.
Some rivalries stand the test of time. The fight between Michael Jordan and Ishii Thomas is definitely one of them. The last time they met was on a basketball court in 1993, but the enmity between them continues into the 21st century. The century. In the 2020 docu-series Last Dance , Jordan talked about his dislike for Thomas. His Majesty also refuted the long-held view that Jordan had prevented Thomas from forming the dream team for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Thomas said he never saw Jordan as a contender because he had a head-to-head advantage between the Detroit Pistons and Jordan’s Chicago Bulls. Was he that dominant? The numbers support some, but not all, of Thomas’ claims.Michael Jordan, not surprisingly, surpassed Isaiah Thomas’ uniqueperformance
. In the regular season, Michael Jordan and Isaiah Thomas met 43 times over nine seasons. It’s important to note that the two men rarely visit each other. Jordan was 6’6 and Thomas just 6’1 as a point guard. Predictably, Jordan had a significant lead in points. In those 43 games, he averaged 31.6 points in 39.8 minutes per game, with 6.2 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 2.3 steals per night. Jordan made 23.4 shots per game, shot 47.6 percent, hit 22.9 percent of 3-pointers on 1.6 attempts per game and 83.6 percent from the free throw line. Thomas played 37.4 minutes per game and averaged 21.0 points, 9.3 assists, 3.8 rebounds and 1.7 steals. Thomas shot 44.4% on 16.9 attempts per game, hit 40.9% on 1.5 deep attempts on the night, and registered 79.5% of his field goal attempts. The statistical difference did not change during the playoffs.
Individual playoff results as one-sided
Isaiah Thomas, left, after a foul on Michael Jordan during a game in Jordan’s rookie season. | Bettmann Archive/Getty Images The Pistons and Bulls met in 22 playoff games, at a time when Michael Jordan led the Bulls and Isaiah Thomas was the heart of the Pistons. Jordan once again won the battle in the individual stats. He averaged 30 points, 6.7 rebounds, 6.1 assists and 2.1 steals in 42 minutes per game. Jordan’s offensive line was .481/.304/.814. By comparison : Thomas averaged 18.9 points per night, along with 8.3 assists, 5.1 rebounds and 2.2 steals in 38.5 minutes. Zeke’s shooting performance was significantly worse than in the regular season. Thomas had a disgusting performance: .397/.261/.791. Despite the increased playing time, Jordan took fewer shots per game in the playoffs, averaging 21.0 attempts. Thomas’ shot volume also dropped, but not by much, as he made 16.4 attempts per game.
Michael Jordan vs. Isaiah Thomas from ateam perspective
. Isaiah Thomas had an edge over Michael Jordan in wins and losses in their mutual encounters. The Pistons went 24-19 in the regular season. The longest streak of wins for either team in these games is six in a row for Detroit. It happened in their first championship season in 1988-89, when the Pistons won the season series against Chicago 6-0. Jordan’s Bulls won by 21. April 1991 to 24. January 1992: four games in a row. The Bulls and Pistons played four consecutive seasons against each other from 1988 to 1991. In the 1988 Eastern Conference semifinals, the Bulls won home field advantage in Game 2 at the Pontiac Silverdome. But the Pistons’ two dominant wins in Chicago allowed Detroit to close out the series in five games. Chicago was in third place, Detroit in second. In 1989, the Pistons faced the Cinderella – Bulls, who entered the postseason ranked 6th. Chicago won the first game on the road. Detroit recaptures home-field advantage with a win in Game 4 at Chicago Stadium. The Pistons ended the series in Game 6 in Chicago thanks to Thomas’ 33 points. In 1990, the Bulls finished in third place. Place and were eliminated in the conference semifinals against the second-seeded Philadelphia 76ers. The Pistons started the game as the defending champions and were once again the best in the East. The home team won every game in the series and Detroit finished it off with a 93-74 win in Game 7 to become champions for the second straight year. The last dance between Zeke and MJ was in the Eastern Conference finals in 1991. The Pistons were in third place behind the Bulls. Chicago beat Detroit in a series made famous by Thomas’ departure rather than acknowledge a changing of the guard in the East and in the NBA. Can Michael Jordan and Isaiah Thomas ever get back together? Who knows? Although Jordan ended his career with six rings against two from Thomas, Thomas had the advantage in faceoffs. Statistics provided by Basketball Reference and Stathead. COMPARED TO: Michael Jordan was taunted by Charles Barkley during one of Scottie Pipens greatest basketball performancesDuring the late 1980s, there was a fierce rivalry between Chicago Bulls superstar Michael Jordan and Detroit Pistons superstar Isiah Thomas. Both men were winning NBA Championships and earning MVP awards. They were perennial All-Stars and their teams were making deep playoff runs.. Read more about isiah thomas vs michael jordan head-to-head stats and let us know what you think.
Frequently Asked Questions
What was Isiah Thomas record against Michael Jordan?
Isiah Thomas was a point guard in the NBA, and one of the best of the late-90’s era, particularly known for his ability to score the ball. He was the first player to lead the league in assists and steals, and he was a two-time NBA All-Star. Despite his talent, Thomas was often overshadowed by contemporaries, such as Kobe Bryant and Allen Iverson, but he nevertheless had a solid career. He was a ten-time All-Star, was the 1995 All-Star MVP, and was the NBA Rookie of the Year in 1991. When we all think of Michael Jordan vs Isiah Thomas, the names of both players inevitably come up. But, just how did they match up against one another? To answer this question, Sports Vision will take a look at the career stats of the two players and rank them according to their stats.
Was Isiah Thomas better than Michael Jordan?
When it came to NBA rivals the most memorable matchup was the Eastern Conference Finals when the New York Knicks faced the Chicago Bulls. These two teams had a history of being involved in heated and highly publicized rivalries. The Knicks and Bulls had faced off several times in the NBA Finals, but this was the first time both teams made it to the Eastern Conference Finals. The Knicks had beaten the Bulls in the playoffs in each of the previous two seasons, and the Bulls had beaten the Knicks in the playoffs the previous three seasons. In the early 1990s, the Chicago Bulls and the New York Knicks were both very successful teams. The Knicks had the better record and the Bulls had the better record in the playoffs. One of the biggest issues was the Bulls’ third-fiddle point guard, Michael Jordan. Jordan was a great player, but had difficulty in holding down the position. When Jordan played against the Knicks, Jordan was able to play at his best. The Knicks seemed to be able to focus on Jordan and had no answer for him. However, when Jordan played against the Knicks, Jordan didn’t play as well. Jordan seemed to do better against the Knicks when he didn’t have to share the ball and focus all of his attention on Jordan. Isiah Thomas
Are Jordan and Isiah Thomas friends?
When you think of Jordan vs. Thomas comparisons, you think of the rivalry between Milwaukee Bucks and Detroit Pistons in the 1980s, but the hatred between two former teammates is a bit more current. Michael Jordan and Isiah Thomas are not best friends. In fact, they have never been friends. And, for the life of me, I can’t understand why they’re friends. The two went way back. They played together on the same team at the University of North Carolina. After that, they played together on the same team in the NBA. They remained friends, even after they left basketball.
Related Tags:
isiah thomas vs michael jordan statsmichael jordan isiah thomasisiah thomas statsisiah thomas, jordanisiah thomas' sonmichael jordan vs isiah thomas head-to-head record,People also search for,Feedback,Privacy settings,How Search works,michael jordan vs isiah thomas head-to-head record,isiah thomas michael jordan head to-head record,isiah thomas vs michael jordan stats,isiah thomas vs michael jordan head-to-head stats,michael jordan isiah thomas,isiah thomas stats,isiah thomas, jordan,isiah thomas' son
