'I'm hurt': Isiah Thomas’s off-color comments about Larry Bird still haunt him

Isiah Thomas and his Detroit Pistons had a spirited rivalry with Larry Bird and the Boston Celtics back in the 1980s. Both Eastern Conference powerhouses knew they needed to get through each other to reach their ultimate goal.

After the heat of a playoff series, Thomas said certain things that he still feels guilty about. All statistics are sourced from Basketball Reference.

Isiah Thomas once said, “Larry Bird is a very, very good basketball player. But if he was Black, he’d be just another guy.”

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Many were not thrilled with the Pistons’ star’s statement, and Thomas received a lot of flack for what he said. “I lost a game, was accused of being a racist, and I’m a bad guy now,” as told to the New York Times.

Thomas would go on to describe how his words put him and his loved ones in a bind. He told the Los Angeles Times, “I’m more hurt and disappointed about this than I am about losing the series. I’m hurt, my family is hurt, my mother’s crying, and I can’t believe this is happening.”

Before apologizing to the public, Thomas tried to defend himself from the criticism that would eventually come his way. Sportscasting’s website noted that the Detroit guard would often play the tape to show that he laughed after he made the remark, in order to indicate that it was a joke. But the damage was already done.

What many do not remember about that situation is the fact that Thomas’ Pistons teammate, Dennis Rodman, was the first to seemingly take shots at Bird and his greatness. It was Rodman who said, “He’s not God. He ain’t the best player in the NBA, not to me. He’s white. That’s the reason he gets it (the MVP award). Nobody gives Magic Johnson credit. He deserved it last year, too. I don’t care. Go ahead and tell him (Bird). You’ll put it in the paper anyway.”

Forbes noted that back and forth between Rodman and his agent Billy Diamond, who also had to do some damage control like Thomas did. Diamond reportedly told Rodman, “are you crazy? The guy (Bird) is one of the top five players in the league and is going to go down as one of the top players every to play in the league. Diamond forced Rodman to apologize to Bird.

For what it’s worth, Bird never leaned into the outrage that the comments caused off of the court. At a press conference in 1987, Forbes noted that Bird said, “If Isiah tells me that it was in a joking matter, I think we should leave it at that.”

Basketball Network pulled a quote from Bird, who also said at the time, “After a game like that, in the heat of the locker room, it’s probably not the best time to talk to us. I’ve answered a lot of questions about it, and talked about it to my family and they still love Isiah Thomas.”

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According to Thomas, Bird used to make jokes about color on the court. As a guest on the All The Smoke podcast, Thomas said, “We walk on the court and he (Larry) is saying ‘who’s guarding me… you ain’t got no brothers? You’re disrespecting me. You can’t put a white dude on me. That is straight disrespect’”.

Bird and Thomas would re-connect later in their basketball lives with the Indiana Pacers, albeit briefly. Bird was tabbed as President of Basketball Operations for the franchise in 2003, and he needed to make an important decision about the direction of the team.

Isiah Thomas coached the Pacers for three seasons, compiling a 131-115 record in that span. However, when Bird took over, he didn’t think Thomas was a good fit to lead the franchise into the future.

Via a TNT segment, Thomas recalled the situation from 2003. “Larry goes, ‘Hey Isiah, I think you’ve done a great job here but I’ve decided to go in a different direction. I’m going to let you go now and I’m going to bring in Rick Carlisle.”

Thomas said he told Bird at the time, “Larry, you and I, I think if we’re here together in Indiana, I think we can do great things with this team. I think you and I would be dynamic here.”

In the same segment, Thomas told Bird, “I think you made a mistake firing me because I would have won with that team. I think we never would have had the Malice at the Palace in Detroit.”

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In 2023, Dennis Rodman had more eye-opening things to say about Larry Bird. He told a podcast that “If Larry Bird played in this era, I think he’d be playing in Europe. I’m just letting you know man. His game was fit for Boston at that time in the 80’s and stuff like that, but in today’s world, there’s no way.”