Jack McCloskey’s reportedly feigned indignation over over Isiah Thomas’ Dream Team snub
Jan Hubbard of Sheridan Hoops:
I had the good fortune to be one of only a handful of reporters who covered the team from the first day of training camp until the last day of the Olympics while I was working for Newsday in 1992. So in honor of the 20-year anniversary, here is the first in what could be a series of 20 memories about various issues surrounding the Dream Team.
3. In what has to be one of the greatest misjudgments by any member of any front office in NBA history, when the first 10 players were announced, McCloskey said not being on the team would not be that big of a deal to Thomas. I was at the NBA league meetings in Palm Springs and after they ended, I found McCloskey at the pool and asked him about Thomas’ exclusion.
“Isiah is above all of that,” McCloskey said in an interview that was recorded. “He can handle it. There’s going to be some great players that are not going to be on that team. … It may be a disappointment to some, but they’ve got to learn to live with those things.”
4. Later, McCloskey discovered how wrong he was because Thomas was incensed. So McCloskey resigned from the committee in protest because it was an insult that Thomas had not made the team! McCloskey simply was not going to take that! It was a matter of principle!
It was, however, a grandstand play that was really not grand at all.
5. The late Chuck Daly was the Pistons coach and head coach of the 1992 Olympic team. He did not have a vote on the selection committee, but one influential member of the committee told me, “If Chuck had come in and demanded Isiah to be on the team, he would have been on the team.” Daly did not do that.
6. I wrote a column at the time saying that it wasn’t enemies who kept Thomas off the team, it was friends. The next time I saw Dave Gavitt, who was the head of USA Basketball, he pulled me aside and said, “You hit that right on the button. I made copies of your column and faxed it to every member of the committee.”
This just reinforces my previous post on Isiah Thomas and the Dream Team. Isiah was left off the Dream Team for a variety of reasons – some fair, some unfair – and it’s not as simple as Michael Jordan (or other Dream Teamers) blackballing him.
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Jun 18, 2012 • 12:00 pm
by Max
If Thomas’ friends were cowed by his enemies then he was still excluded due to pressure from his enemies.
Jun 18, 2012 • 7:14 pm
by C-Foe
Dan, thanks for the article. I remember the report that McCloskey resigned, but I couldn’t remember how he was associated with the USA Olympic committee.
I just read Hubbard’s articlel and all I can think of is “Crap”. To write an article stating that the Pistons’ walk-out on the Bulls cost Isiah a spot on the Dream Team is beyond reaching. This is one of the few items that gets me hot because they won’t tell the truth.
It seems like a bunch of weasels trying to deflect blame by saying, “Hey don’t blame us for Isiah’s snub, blame McCloskey and Daly”. Since Daly can’t defend himself, then they can place some of the blame on him. A couple of items related to Daly:
1. Joe Dumars on call to replace Stockton. Let’s see…We’ve got a PG with HIV and we really don’t know how that is going to affect him physically. So Daly says instead of getting a proven PG (Isiah), we’ll call Joe Dumars? It would have been more believable if Hubbard said call Tim Hardaway who averaged 10 APG in 90-91. Isiah was criticized for being a “shoot-first PG” which didn’t work in that style of play but we’ll call a shooting guard to be our backup PG if we need one?!?
2. If Daly would have asked for Isiah, he would have gotten him. Let’s see….His job is to win with the players they gave him and it’s an honor to be selected to represent your country at the Olympics. If he would have quit over Isiah, he would have been branded as unpatriotic and his reputation damaged. So it was okay for a member of the Olympic committee to resign in an “alleged” protest and you they still don’t include Isiah, but if the coach would have said something then they would have included him?
I could be wrong, Dan, but Hubbard’s points aren’t passing my “sniff” test.
Jun 18, 2012 • 10:25 pm
by Dano
Isaiah dug his own grave in terms of the Dream Team.
Had he not led the “Jordan freeze out” during the 1985 All-Star game, Jordan probably wouldn’t have lobbied to “freeze” him out of the 1992 Dream Team.
Jun 18, 2012 • 10:30 pm
by Dano
As an amendment I’d like to add, if we’ve anything of Jordan in recent years it’s that, like an elephant, he never forgets. Never forgets slights against his person, and he holds grudges, lifelong grudges for seemingly simple acts.
I’m certain that he didn’t forget the freeze out, and I’m sure being the most powerful player in the NBA at that point (instead of just a second year player with no clout like in 85) and leader of ’92 Dream Team afforded him the ability to finally exact his revenge on Zeke, seeing as the tables had turned, and he took it and ran with it.
Jun 18, 2012 • 10:37 pm
by FrankieB
C-Foe, Jan Hubbard is giving you a 1st-hand account of the interview with Jack McCloskey. It’s not his opinion, he’s not speculating, he’s telling you point-black that McCloskey didn’t think it would be a big deal and then when he found out Isiah hit the roof he did a 180. You can say it doesn’t pass your ‘sniff’ test but Hubbard is an outstanding professional sports writer with 30+ years of experience.
Hubbard doesn’t blame McCloskey and he doesn’t blame Daly. If you read the entire piece — and the comments from some of us at his blog and his responses to us — you’ll see that there were a number of variables that went into the decision. For instance, and I think Jan disagrees with me somewhat, but I posted a CHICAGO TRIBUNE story from 1985 on the alleged ‘freeze out’ and in the story Jordan and Isiah basically say everything is hunky-dory. I tend to think this was minor because nobody ever confirmed that there was a ‘freeze-out’ and if Isiah was so hated, who would protect him ?
I think sometimes the shortest distance between 2 points is a straight line. And that straight line is what Scottie Pippen said: Isiah was The General of those late 1980′s/early 1990′s Pistons teams that Jordan and Pippen HATED with a passion. Isiah was that symbol, along with Laimbeer and Mahorn. Not Joe Dumars…not even Dennis Rodman (later played with Jordan/Pippen), and not Chuck Daly.
That 1991 walk-off probably sealed the deal. Had Isiah shook hands with Pippen and Jordan and wished them the best, maybe — MAYBE !!!! — they don’t diss him during the selection process. Or maybe not. I am guessing there, I freely admit it. You and Jan both say that if Daly had asked for Isiah he probably would have gotten him. You both may be right — and if not, if Daly had made personal appeals to Jordan/Magic/Pippen/Bird then it probably would have happened. It never got that far. Isiah had burned alot of bridges (the rumor of 1985, the Dantley trade, spreading rumors via favorite reporters, etc).
One last thing: Isiah went downhill very fast at the end. By 1992 he was a shell of the player he was 3-4 years earlier. Bird was too, but he was injured and could still hit 3-point and long-distance shots even though he couldn’t move/rebound like 10 years earlier.
Jun 19, 2012 • 12:08 am
by C-Foe
Hey Frankie, allow me to clarify a couple of things. I wasn’t saying that Hubbard blamed McCloskey and/or Daly for Isiah’s snub, I just had issues with his assertion that the walk-out cost Isiah a spot on the team because of poor sportsmanship. If sportsmanship is a key quality, they I wonder how they justified letting Barkley go again in 1996 after elbowing a player in the chest?
The “weasels” that I refer to are the members of the committee who try to lay this on Daly and McCloskey, and does not include Hubbard. I apologize if that came off wrong, it’s what I get for trying to work and write a comment at the same time.
One correction, Hubbard’s article says that a committee member said if Daly would have asked for Isiah then he would have gotten him. I don’t think that is Daly’s call, that’s the selection committee’s job. Chuck is supposed to prepare and coach the team they give him. We don’t know, Daly may have asked McCloskey about Isiah and then decided not to rock the boat by pushing for him.
If they started assembling the team after the walkoff (90-91), then Isiah (29 yrs) just came off of a 16.2 PPG and 9.3 APG season. Also, in 91-92 he had 18.5 PPG and 7.3 APG, so they couldn’t argue that his skills were declining.
My point regarding Joe Dumars shows how flawed the logic is. Why would you pass up a proven PG stating he’s a “shoot first PG” (who avg 9.3 APG) to get a SG as an emergency backup PG?? I should have clarified that Hubbard’s source would have done better saying that they would call Tim Hardaway as a backup.
In Hubbard’s point 13 he stated, “No one on the committee or coaching staff wanted to get into a game where a player tried to take over as an individual and put on a show.” Then the committee and coaching staff were really underestimating Isiah by thinking he didn’t understand what the team’s goal was. I believe he would have fit without any problems. If they can play in All-Star games together (which meant nothing) then I believe they could have come together for this.
Jun 19, 2012 • 10:03 am
by zeke.fr
Isiah was dangerous for the team chemistry OFF the court. The DReam team was a marketing product were the NBA wanted to sell anice clean image to the world.Isiah was the leader of the Bad boys
The risk of ISIAH not geting along with his teammatewas high…& the reward for the USA team was non existant.
Thomas non selection wasn’t a surprise at all IMHO
Jun 19, 2012 • 11:04 am
by FrankieB
C-Foe, no offense taken and you make some more good points. Look, if you were a Pistons fan back then I can understand your frustration. But even before the internet and talk radio you had to know that Isiah was well-known for ‘back-stabbing’ and violating trusts:
(1) The Adrian Dantley trade, where he denied having anything to do with it.
(2) His going public with his ownership/management position with the Pistons which Bill Davidson explicitly told him NOT to mention to anyone before he formally announced it.
(3) His ‘whisperings’ to numerous national columnists including Peter Vecsey in the 1980′s.
(4) The sexual harassment incident at MSG. I believe he might have been innocent of the worst charges but no way he was totally innocent.
(5) The Suicide Incident: it wasn’t him, it was his daughter ????????
Too many weird things happen around Isiah, even if he is blameless and/or they aren’t lies. He was a great player and I give him credit for playing 2 years with Bobby Knight and not once coming to blows with him. But the guy really ticked off alot of players other than MJ — Pippen, Barkley, Ewing, Bird, etc — and I just think that neither McCloskey nor Daly wanted to expend the amount of capital it would have taken to smooth over ruffled feathers by including him.
And while he was still a decent PG, his shooting percentage had fallen by 1992. If this Dream Team was chosen in 1988 or 1990 no way he could have been left off. But I remember the Knicks beating the Pistons in 1992 and how far Isiah had slipped. I also remember Bill Laimbeer telling the Knicks after they won Game 5 to “Beat Chicago !!!” — LOL. I’m sure that didn’t help Isiah, either.
Jun 19, 2012 • 6:10 pm
by C-Foe
Hey Frankie, I would be naive to believe that Isiah is blameless or is an angel.
You are right, I have been a Pistons fan for a very long time and I hate what the media does to him because he doesn’t (always) deserve it.
Good post.