Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. That’s the attitude Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas had when he turned down the chance to appear in HBO’s new docuseries, “Celtics City.”
Thomas, who had a starring role in the rivalry between the Pistons and Celtics in the 1980s, didn’t want to be portrayed as a villain. That’s what Thomas thought happened in “The Last Dance,” a docuseries about Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls.
Having gone through that experience once, Thomas elected not to risk anything this time around.
“I decided not to do the Boston documentary because of what Jordan and ‘The Last Dance’ did,” Thomas told SiriusXM NBA Radio. “They totally set me up and blindsided me. I wasn’t gonna get fooled twice. I just decided not to participate in the documentary and be able to talk about it. I wasn’t gonna go on film and sit there and potentially be set up again like I was set up in ‘The Last Dance.'”
From 1985-1991, the Celtics and Pistons met in the playoffs five times. Four of those matchups came in the second round or later. Thomas and Celtics legend Larry Bird were at the center of it all with Boston taking the first two of the five before Thomas and Detroit rattled off three in a row.
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It would have been interesting to get Thomas’ perspective on the rivalry, but he had already felt burnt once by a former foe. Perhaps one day Thomas will open up more about his side of the story.
