- 48
- 10
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2004
Maybe not as close as it seemed. Zeke didn't make that Dream Team with his "close friend" Magic on there. Surely Magic would have had SOME pull to get his "close friend" on the team, no? Magic also had some bombshell allegations against Zeke in later years.
They were VERY close in the 80's. It wasn't until they met up in the Finals in '88 that their friendship strained. They worked out together every summer. Magic even had a room in his house called the Isiah room where Zeke would stay whenever in he was in L.A. for a game. Magic would just leave the keys for him. And then Isiah's going around the league questioning Magic's sexuality in '92 destroyed the friendship. Magic considers the fallout between him & Isiah the biggest disappointment of his life.
But back to the original topic, the NBA has been filled with players, even superstars, who have been friends since its inception. But they didn't let that be their driving force while in the league. I can even recall the Celtics trading Bird's favorite drinking partner and the Bulls trading Jordan's closest friend on the team, Charles Oakley. Neither threw a fit or tried to follow their friend. They understood it was a business. It just goes to show that somewhere down the line things changed.