New audio proves Michael Jordan lied about kicking Isiah Thomas off Olympic team

New audio reveals Michael Jordan did insist Isiah Thomas was excluded from the 1992 Olympics basketball team.

The Chicago Bulls superstar denied claims he was directly responsible for Thomas not being selected for the’Dream Team’ or that he told Olympic selection committee member Rod Thorn he would not play if his rival was in the squad.

Thomas and Denver Pistons team-mates had a serious rivalry going with Jordan and the Chicago Bulls at the time and in 1991 the Pistons had refused to shake the hands of Bulls when they were beaten in the Eastern Conference finals.

Speaking in his Netflix documentary ‘Last Dance’ Jordan gave his account of how the ‘Dream Team’ was assembled.

‘I respect Isiah Thomas’ talent. To me, the best point guard of all time is Magic Johnson and right behind him is Isiah Thomas,’ said Jordan.

‘No matter how much I hate him, I respect his game. Now, it was insinuated that I was asking [for Thomas to be left off the team] but I never threw his name in there.’

But writer Jack McCallum has now revealed audio he has from an interview with Jordan where he admitted to telling Horn he wouldn’t play for the team with Thomas.

He said: ‘Rod Thorn called me. I said, “Rod, I won’t play if Isiah Thomas is on the team”. He assured me. He said, ‘You know what? Chuck [Daly] doesn’t want Isiah. So, Isiah is not going to be part of the team”.’

The USA Olympic team would go on to win the gold medal and Thomas said in the Netflix documentary how hurt he was by the snub.

‘Being left off the Dream Team, that personally hurt me,’ he said. ‘The only thing that’s missing from my resume is [the Dream Team].

‘I still don’t know who did it or why I didn’t make it. I know the criteria for making the team, I fit all the criteria. That’s a big hole in my resume.’

Jordan’s ‘Last Dance’ documentary has been a massive hit, but the basketball star and the documentary makers have been criticised for their retelling of different events.

Scottie Pippen is believed to be furious with how he is portrayed, while Jordan’s Bulls team-mate Horace Grant slammed the documentary.

‘When that so-called documentary is about one person, basically, and he has the last word on what’s going to be put out there… it’s not a documentary,’ Grant said.

‘It’s his narrative of what happens in the last, quote-unquote dance.

‘That’s not a documentary because a whole bunch of things was cut out, edited out. So that’s why I call it a so-called documentary.’

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