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Last week, HBO released a new in-depth documentary series called Celtics City which take a look back at the storied history of the NBA’s Boston Celtics. However, one person who does not appear in the show that had numerous, historic battles with the Celtics is Isiah Thomas.
Thomas, who played for the Detroit Pistons from 1981 to 1994, knows as well as any NBA star what a rivalry with the Boston Celtics is like. His Pistons faced off against the Celtics five times in the playoffs during his Hall of Fame career. In fact, Boston was one of the big hurdles that Detroit had to overcome after losing to them twice in the Eastern Conference semi-finals and then the finals before making it to three straight NBA Finals, winning two of them.
The Pistons run came to an end at the hands of Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls in 1991 (though they did beat the Celtics in the conference semi-finals), and it is a previous documentary on that Bulls team, The Last Dance, that apparently is the reason Isiah Thomas doesn’t appear in Celtics City.
“I decided not to do the Boston documentary because of what Jordan and The Last Dance did,” Thomas told SiriusXM NBA Radio this week. “They totally set me up and blindsided me. And I wasn’t gonna get fooled twice. So I just decided not to participate in the documentary and be able to talk about it. But I wasn’t gonna go on film and sit there and be set up, and potentially be set up again, like I was set up in The Last Dance.”
Isiah Thomas has been very vocal about how he feels he was portrayed in The Last Dance ever since it was released five years ago.
“When I was watching The Last Dance, I’m sitting there and I’m watching it with my family and I’m thinking everything is good,” Thomas said in 2022.
“And then this guy comes on television and he says that he hates me and then he calls me an a–hole. And then I proceed to watch a whole documentary about him being an a–hole. I’m like wait a minute, time out. Until I get a public apology, this beef is gonna go on for a long long time, cause I’m from the west side of Chicago.”
In 2024, Thomas was still talking about it.
“This dude got on national television, international television, and called me an a– hole,” Thomas told Draymond Green on his podcast. “Somebody who’s been really good to him.”
“And until he apologizes on international television, we… no conversation. You can’t apologize and have a private dinner when you done embarrassed me publicly. If you didn’t mean it, say it publicly. Now if you meant it, let it stand. I’m good with that.”