Magic Johnson made his feelings clear on Isiah Thomas’ NBA legacy, without ‘taking anything away’ from John Stockton

Johnson sees Thomas as a disrespected legend

Thomas is a fantastic player who has had tremendous success. He was an anomaly in 1989 and 1990, being a diminutive point guard who led his Bad Boys team to two consecutive championships. That team remains iconic to this day, which inspires many ideas about seeing them in the modern NBA.

That was rare in the NBA, which is a league consisting of giants. However, Thomas led his team to fantastic accomplishments with those titles, as he won the Finals MVP in 1990 and was a vital cog when Joe Dumars won the same award a year earlier.

Johnson uses that accomplishment as his primary argument when talking about Thomas. He believed in 2016 that Thomas is better than Stockton and Curry. The Curry part probably changed in the past decade, but Johnson’s point about Thomas getting disrespected is still valid.

“Isiah led his team to back-to-back championships, and that’s hard to do. The Utah Jazz had their opportunity, but they came up short the times that they went to the NBA Finals because they didn’t have the guy that could take over the game,” Johnson said on ESPN.

“I’m not going to take anything away from John Stockton because I played against him six times a year, and he was incredible.”

“He wasn’t the go-to guy at the end of the games, in the fourth quarter, where Isiah was that guy. We saw Isiah score 50 points, 45 points. We didn’t see John Stockton do that, and that’s what we’re talking about.”

Thomas deserves to be mentioned among the greatest point guards

Across NBA history, many elite point guards have come and gone, but only a few have become champions as the featured star. The best examples of those are Johnson, Thomas, and Curry. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander also joined this special group of all-time greats after the 2025 Finals.

Thomas is cemented as a legend, but it has not translated to his legacy and popularity. Johnson is always there to prop up and support his friendly rival, but that has not led to the attention being on him.

People have always loved elite point guards, but Thomas is pretty unpopular. This includes some people who dislike him, including former rival Scottie Pippen, who has thoughts about Thomas.

He deserves the recognition, and people should continue learning more about Thomas. He has earned his way to becoming one of the best guards in the sport.