What is Isiah Thomas meme? Exploring its origin and relation with 'Last Dance'

The Isiah Thomas meme was born with "The Last Dance." Michael Jordan's documentary has many interesting details regarding his last season with the Chicago Bulls and features some of his biggest rivals, including Thomas.

Thomas was a fierce competitor during his prime and was responsible for eliminating Jordan from the playoffs several times. The Detroit Pistons guard appeared in Jordan's documentary, but his appearance resulted in a meme.

The Isiah Thomas meme was all about his snub from the 1992 Dream Team. At the time, the 6-foot-1 guard was very talented, yet he wasn't selected to be a part of the amazing Olympic team.

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The Isiah Thomas meme came from Michael Jordan's documentary

Michael Jordan gave Thomas a chance to appear on "The Last Dance." However, the former Detroit Pistons guard spent two hours talking for the documentary, yet Jordan and his crew gave him little air time.

Thomas' appearance resulted in the "I met the criteria" meme, which has been popular ever since. The criteria the former NBA superstar talks about is the criteria for the Dream Team selection.

"I don’t know what went into that process," Thomas said on the documentary. "I met the criteria to be selected, but I wasn’t."

Thomas averaged 18.5 points and 7.2 assists per game during the 1991-92 season. However, his Pistons did not achieve much success as they were eliminated by the New York Knicks in the first round of the playoffs.

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Despite his failure to capture another championship, the guard was still very good, but he wasn't selected for the team. Instead, the United States basketball team went with Magic Johnson and John Stockton as their point guards.

There was a lot of talk that it was Jordan who prevented Thomas from getting selected. This is a big reason why the 2-time NBA champion appeared in the documentary, but to no avail. Jordan still claims that he had nothing to do with the selection process.

The Isiah Thomas meme is funny and many basketball fans have joked about it. Even the former Pistons guard likes it, which he admitted in his recent appearance on the "All The Smoke" podcast.

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However, if everything was fine, the Isiah Thomas meme wouldn't have even existed. Zeke talked about many other things that happened during his career and his rivalry with Michael Jordan, but MJ and his producer didn't show much of it.

On top of that, Jordan's former rival claims that he wasn't even paid for his appearance in the documentary.