{"id":74631,"date":"2025-06-03T19:57:14","date_gmt":"2025-06-03T19:57:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/74631\/"},"modified":"2025-06-03T19:57:14","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T19:57:14","slug":"chicago-bulls-legend-derrick-rose-names-michael-jordans-biggest-rival-as-his-nba-goat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/74631\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Bulls legend Derrick Rose names Michael Jordan’s biggest rival as his NBA GOAT"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael Jordan<\/a> made an indelible mark on the NBA during nearly two decades as a professional basketball player. And without a doubt, the place where he left the strongest legacy was with the Chicago Bulls. However, now Derrick Rose, another icon of the franchise, has chosen MJ\u2019s biggest rival as his favorite in the GOAT debate.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy GOAT now is Isiah Thomas because he\u2019s from Chicago,\u201d revealed Rose<\/a> during a recent interview with HoopsHype. The 2011 league MVP then highlighted a key reason behind his pick: \u201cThe only guy who beat Magic (Johnson), Mike (Jordan), and (Larry) Bird all in their prime at 6-3. Chicago\u2019s way of doing (expletive).\u201d<\/p>\n

This answer is surprising for several reasons. First, because most players tend to name Jordan as their GOAT\u2014especially those who played for the Bulls<\/a>. And also because Rose himself had previously mentioned His Airness as the greatest of all time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to say MJ, but it wasn\u2019t MJ. I said it because I was intrigued by his story and how he won,\u201d Derrick clarified. He then pointed to how his own experience as a player influenced his decision to choose Thomas over Michael. \u201cI\u2019m not a two-guard. I don\u2019t score like him at all. So it was just me just admiring his story.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Isiah<\/p>\n

Isiah Thomas in action during an NBA game with the Detroit Pistons.<\/p>\n

Rose\u2019s strong ties to the city of Chicago<\/p>\n

Despite being one of the most important Bulls players of this century\u2014in fact, the only member of the franchise to win the MVP award in the last 27 years\u2014Derrick Rose has always made it clear that his main allegiance is to the city of Chicago, where he was born in October 1988.<\/p>\n

\"Detroit<\/p>\n

see also<\/p>\n

Detroit legend Isiah Thomas, Michael Jordan’s biggest rival, names the best NBA player of all time<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

With that in mind, in an interview earlier this year on the Out The Mud podcast, Rose named his top five Chicago players<\/a>. \u201cI gotta go Zeke,\u201d he said first, referring to Isiah Thomas<\/a> and remaining consistent with his current choice of the Detroit Pistons icon as the GOAT.<\/p>\n

Derrick then highlighted other former NBA players born in Chicago, such as Will Bynum, Tony Allen, Jabari Parker, Patrick Beverley, and Sherron Collins.<\/p>\n

The rivalry between Jordan and Thomas<\/p>\n

The clashes between Michael Jordan and Isiah Thomas began in MJ\u2019s early years in the league. He was already the undisputed leader of the Bulls, but had yet to take them to the top of the Eastern Conference, largely due to the Detroit Pistons.<\/p>\n

For three consecutive years, from 1988 to 1990, the Bad Boys knocked Chicago out of the playoffs, winning the championship in two of those three seasons. The streak finally ended in 1991, and from that point on, MJ would dominate the NBA<\/a>\u2014but his relationship with Thomas was never repaired.<\/p>\n

The tension reached such a point that, during the lead-up to the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, the question of whether or not Isiah would be included became a key issue in Jordan\u2019s decision to join Team USA. While Mike always denied making Thomas\u2019s exclusion a condition, he did acknowledge that discussions on the matter took place\u2014and in the end, Thomas was left off the roster despite his basketball credentials.<\/p>\n

SurveyIs Isiah Thomas the greatest player in NBA history?<\/p>\n

Is Isiah Thomas the greatest player in NBA history?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael Jordan made an indelible mark on the NBA during nearly two decades as a professional basketball player.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74632,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3771],"tags":[7,920,919,329,3824,1025,2036,935,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-74631","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-bulls","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-bulls","10":"tag-chicago","11":"tag-chicago-bulls","12":"tag-chicagobulls","13":"tag-derrick-rose","14":"tag-isiah-thomas","15":"tag-michael-jordan","16":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114621201997286739","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}