SPORTS commentator Michael Wilbon apologized to Isiah Thomas for saying nine of the 12 members of the Team USA in 1992 did not want the Pistons star as teammate during the Barcelona Olympics.
Wilbon, an ESPN analyst and former sportswriter, said it was “nowhere near that number.”
Although it was known that Michael Jordan had a feud with Thomas, the former said during the latest episodes of 'The Last Dance' docuseries that he did nothing to prevent the latter from making the team.
“You want to attribute it to me, go ahead and be my guest. But it wasn’t me,” said Jordan.
Wilbon, who also appeared in the highly anticipated 10-part documentary, said on “The Jump” on ESPN with Rachel Nichols this week that nine of the 12 team members did not want Thomas in the Games.
“I’m gonna say nine of those guys just were not in favor of hanging out with Isiah Thomas at that time, and that’s what that summer was, it was a big hangout. It was like summer camp,” Wilbon said.
“They knew who they wanted to spend the summer with, and they knew who they didn’t want to spend the summer with.
“Hanging that on Michael Jordan is just inaccurate … That group of people, I’m going to say nine out of 12, they made it known to whomever that this wasn’t somebody they wanted in their summer camp.”
Wilbon apologized for having the number wrong, and did not provide a new figure.
The members of the team were Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, David Robinson, Patrick Ewing, Karl Malone, Charles Barkley, Chris Mullin, John Stockton, Clyde Drexler, Scottie Pippen and NCAA player of the year Christian Laettner of Duke.
"Multiple sources reached out to tell me I'm dead wrong to say 9 members of the Dream Team objected to Isiah being on the '92 Olympic team," Wilbon said on Twitter.
"Nowhere near that number objected. My apologies to Isiah for getting it wrong."
Thomas accepted the apology.
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