Isiah Thomas postgame interview after Pistons steal OT win from Sixers

Isiah Thomas was in the process of defending the Detroit Pistons’ 1989 NBA championship when he delivered a go-ahead three-pointer and clinching steal to beat Charles Barkley and the Philadelphia 76ers on March 2, 1990. He was also an All-Star for the ninth-straight season that year and firmly established as the best point guard in basketball.

The Chicago native and product of Indiana University entered the NBA in 1981 as the second overall pick in the draft. He’d eventually conclude the 1990 campaign by leading his “Bad Boy” Pistons to a second-straight title. Following the three-point win over Philly, Thomas met with the Pistons television network to discuss the play that legendary coach Chuck Daly diagrammed in the huddle to get him loose for the critical bucket.

ISIAH THOMAS POSTGAME INTERVIEW | PISTONS vs SIXERS March 2, 1990

“We got Isiah Thomas here,” the postgame interview began after the Detroit Pistons legend helped seal a 115-112 win over the Philadelphia 76ers.

“Isiah, I guess the first thing we got to talk about is the sequence down the stretch. The 3-pointer, and then the steal coming on the inbounds.”

“When we diagrammed the play in the huddle, it was up to me to either check the 3-point shot or drive to the basket and try to get a quick two,” Thomas explained.

“I ended up taking the three, I made it, and then we just locked up. I saw Gminski run to what would be his right first, I saw there was nobody on that side of the court. So I covered Scott Brooks and he came back to his left and he made a bounce pass.

“I was lucky enough to get there and make the bounce pass. When I stole the basketball, I quickly looked for one of my teammates. I saw Joe streaking down the left side and I hit him with the basketball and he laid it up.”

“Simple as that. One of the things we were talking about tonight was a struggle offensively–seemed like for everybody. You and Joe both scored a lot of points but the shot just wasn’t going.

“But when it came down to crunch time there was no question who had to take the shot–it had to be either you or Joe from the 3-point range.”

“We’ve been playing a lot of games over the last week-and-a-half,” Thomas added. “Our legs just kind of gave out tonight. We didn’t have good legs, we didn’t have good mobility and shots wasn’t falling. But we just kept working and kept digging hard.

“At the end of the game we weren’t trying to concentrate on our offense, we were just trying to concentrate on stopping them defensively.”

“Two games in a row now, the overtime game against Houston and of course tonight, you’ve had tough calls. The offensive foul went in the Pistons favor the other night in favor of Joe, tonight you had the Rodman situation on Barkley and it went the other way.

“Should calls be made at that time in the game?”

“Calls should definitely be made at that time in the game,” Isiah said. “I went and told the official, whether it was the right call or the wrong call at least he had the guts enough to make the call.

“When you’re playing the game of basketball, and you’re playing as hard as we play, all you want is a fair whistle.

“Whether or not he made the right or the wrong call, at least he had guts enough to make the call and you have to respect an official such as that.”  

You also had to respect a player such as Isiah who always had guts enough to make the call for Detroit in the pivotal moments. While the narrative surrounding his Hall of Fame legacy was tainted by a glaring omission from the 1992 Dream Team, there isn’t a point guard in history you’d rather have with the ball in his hands while the game was in the balance than Isiah Lord Thomas III.

Back-to-Back

The Detroit Pistons earned their “Bad Boys” moniker by recklessly dispatching their opponents en route to back-to-back NBA championships. But despite their brutish force and disregard for professional etiquette, there was always a dignity and grace in the brilliance of Isiah’s game. He’d help Detroit cruise through the ’89 season while totaling 63 wins before eliminating the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals for their first ring. The party would only continue in the Motor City from there.

The following season, the Pistons eventually collided with the Portland Trail Blazers on basketball’s biggest stage. During his encore performance in the NBA Finals, Isiah put on an absolute show. He opened the series by scoring 12 points in the last seven minutes of Game 1 to earn a 105-99 win before scoring 22 points during the third quarter of Game 4, and closing the series in Game 5 with 29. Three months after helping his team to the OT win over Philly, he averaged 28 points and seven assists in the Finals while writing another championship anthem for Motown.