We’ve already spotted some athletes and analysts grumbling LeBron James should have played through a left leg cramp that was uncontrollably spasming during the fourth quarter of Game 1. An unlikely hall-of-famer came to his defense in a big way when Isiah Thomas said, “Michael Jordan absolutely couldn’t have played through those cramps.”
Zeke might have had a series of stunning failures in his post-basketball career, Knicks fans are nodding, but the former Pistons point guard was an absolute assassin on the court. Who can forget the time he dropped 25 points in third quarter after severely spraining his ankle during Game 6 of the 1988 NBA Finals against Magic’s Showtime Lakers. Nobody can question Thomas’ heart and ability to fight through pain to compete, so when he’s sticking up for James, we all better listen:
Per Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports:
“There is no athlete on the planet who could’ve played through those cramps,” Thomas told Yahoo Sports. “Michael Jordan absolutely couldn’t have played through those cramps. I absolutely couldn’t have played through those cramps. As an athlete, there’s nothing you could do.”
[…]
“There’s no way you could play that way,” Thomas told Yahoo Sports. “People have to understand that – just no way.”
James did try to return as the Spurs outscored the Heat 26-9 after cramps forced him to sit out the last seven and a half minutes of the fourth, but Spoelstra told him, “Don’t even think about it. You can’t even move.”
Also, MJ’s sat because of cramps in a playoff game, too.
When Michael Jordan got sick the game BEFORE the flu game, he asked out of the lineup in a 78-73 Jazz Finals win. https://t.co/dGvcce3qbH
— Bill Barnwell (@billbarnwell) June 6, 2014
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(Yahoo)
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