HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — Isiah Thomas is firing back at comments made by his longtime friend Magic Johnson in a soon-to-be-released book, including one that accuses the former New York Knicks general manager of spreading rumors about Johnson's sexuality after he tested positive for HIV.
"I'm really hurt, and I really feel taken advantage of for all these years,'' Thomas told Sports Illustrated, which published the first excerpts from the book. "I'm totally blindsided by this. Every time that I've seen Magic, he has been friendly with me. Whenever he came to a Knick game, he was standing in the tunnel [to the locker room] with me. He and [Knicks assistant coach] Herb [Williams] and I, we would go out to dinner in New York. I didn't know he felt this way.''
Johnson co-wrote the book, When The Game Was Ours, with Larry Bird and author Jackie MacMullan. It tells the story of the heated rivalry between Johnson and Bird, in which Thomas was also a major factor while starring for the Detroit Pistons.
In the book, due out Nov. 4, Johnson claims Thomas began spreading rumors about him being gay or bi-sexual after he was diagnosed with HIV in 1991. He writes: "Isiah kept questioning people about it. I couldn't believe that. The one guy I thought I could count on had all these doubts. It was like he kicked me in the stomach."
Johnson said his agent, Lon Rosen, told him in 1991 that Thomas said to him, "I keep hearing Magic is gay,'' and Rosen said he replied: "C'mon, Isiah, you know Earvin better than anyone.'' Thomas is said to have replied: "I know, but I don't know what he's doing when he's out there in L.A." Thomas denied the conversation ever took place.
"What most people don't know is, before Magic had HIV, my brother had HIV,'' Thomas, who is the first-year coach at Florida International, told SI. "My brother died of HIV, AIDS, drug abuse. So I knew way more about the disease, because I was living with it in my house.''
"Magic acted and responded off some really bad information that he got,'' he continued. "Whatever friendship we had, I thought it was bulls--- that he believed that. Let me put it to you this way: If he and I were such close friends, if I was questioning his sexuality, then I was questioning mine too. That's how idiotic it is.''
Johnson also admits that he teamed with Michael Jordan and other players in blackballing Thomas from the 1992 Olympic Dream Team, writing, "Isiah killed his own chances when it came to the Olympics. Nobody on that team wanted to play with him. ... Michael didn't want to play with him. Scottie [Pippen] wanted no part of him. Bird wasn't pushing for him. Karl Malone didn't want him. Who was saying, 'We need this guy?' Nobody.''
"I'm glad that he's finally had the nerve and the courage to stand up and say it was him, as opposed to letting Michael Jordan take the blame for it all these years,'' responded Thomas to Magic's admission. "I wish he would have had the courage to say this stuff to me face to face, as opposed to writing it in some damn book to sell and he can make money off it.''
Johnson writes that he considered Thomas as his closest friend in the league until their two teams met in the 1988 NBA Finals. At one point during the heated series, Magic famously drilled Thomas as the Pistons guard drove into the lane. Thomas admitted that the series changed the dynamics of their friendship, but he never knew Magic had an issue with him. In fact, he tells SI the pair were laughing and smiling together as recently as August.
"If he was feeling this way, why was he shaking my hand and kissing me and acting like he and I were such buddies?'' said Thomas. "Why do you do that?"
"People who know me and my family and what I stand for will laugh at Magic and his beliefs," he added. "I'm tired of getting punched and people using me because they think I'm not going to say anything. Those days are over. Game on."
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