The old heads like Charles Barkley and Julius Erving, and maybe even the relatively less old ones like Tracy McGrady, don’t have a nice word to say about the player empowerment movement of the modern NBA. But there’s an unexpected outlier among the old-school purists. While critics argue that today’s superstars choose the easy path of superteams rather than competing against one another, Detroit Pistons legend Isiah Thomas went against this narrative with a reality check. As Zeke reveals, the players before LeBron James didn’t have the luxury to talk about player empowerment.

Speaking to Tim Hardaway Sr. on The Crossover Podcast, the Hall of Fame point guard rejected the idea that past generations stayed with their drafted franchises out of pure, unadulterated loyalty. Zeke also spent his entire career with the Pistons, but he revealed that it was a necessity of the era.

“Now, the reason why we couldn’t—key word, couldn’t—change teams: I was the president of the Players Association. And during my period of time, the whole fight was for free agency. We all wanted to be able to leave, change, and go to other places, okay? But we couldn’t. So when them older guys in my age bracket start telling you, ‘Oh, I never would have changed anything,’ they couldn’t. They couldn’t. They couldn’t leave the place that you were drafted.”

Isiah Thomas served as the president of the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA), a role he held from 1988 to 1994. What he also doesn’t reference is that he has executive experience during his time with the Toronto Raptors and New York Knicks until 2008. He had critical historical context to reveal that franchises didn’t let players leave on their own unless they were traded.

LeBron James’ landmark 2010 move to the Miami Heat drastically shifted that power dynamic. For Thomas, witnessing LeBron exercise his unrestricted free agency during “The Decision” was a triumph for the modern athlete but also a dream come true moment for older players like himself who went through executive battles decades prior.

“Now, the fact that LeBron left, for older guys like myself, I was happy to see him have the type of freedom to move around,” Zeke explained. “Because so many great players got stuck in organizations, got stuck with bad management, got stuck in places where they couldn’t excel, and management never got the blame. And so during that period of time, we was fighting for players to leave.”

Bron went to a winning situation, forming a rare Big 3 with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh at Miami and winning his first two championships. Charles Barkley repeatedly called that concept ‘cheating’  only because he was never given the option to team up with Michael Jordan and win a ring or six.

Several GMs also hate the player empowerment movement, while D-Wade, who stuck with the Miami Heat between two other superteam attempts in Chicago and Cleveland, will frequently defend LeBron for starting it. But most of his critics repeatedly compare him to one superstar who became the benchmark of one-club loyalty.

Isiah Thomas broke down the Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant loyalty myth

Now it’s not hard to see why Zeke brought up LeBron’s ‘The Decision.’ Hardaway Sr’s co-hosts suggested that Isiah Thomas team up with Michael Jordan. They had a rivalry in the ’80s, a friendship in the ’90s and early ’00s, but fell out in the 2020s. Zeke has since used every opportunity to elevate LeBron James over Michael Jordan.

That’s not to say he’s wrong about why players didn’t leave teams. Hardaway Sr. doesn’t vocally confirm it, but he does seem to agree with Zeke about teams not letting the player into trade decisions. The dad of the Nuggets star and NBA journeyman, though, is also a harsh critic of player empowerment, superteams, and LeBron.

Most contrast James’ decisions with Kobe Bryant’s loyalty to the Los Angeles Lakers. But Isiah Thomas reminded listeners that even the most celebrated franchise icons like Bean actively looked for ways out when their situations became untenable.

“You talking about, ‘Oh, Jordan didn’t leave. Kobe didn’t leave,” Thomas challenged. “Kobe said to the Lakers, ‘If you don’t get rid of Shaq, I’m bouncing. I’m leaving.'” And that was not once, but twice.

The well-documented 2004 offseason fracture saw the Lakers ultimately trade Shaquille O’Neal to the Miami Heat after Bryant issued an implicit ultimatum to the front office. Bryant also famously demanded a trade publicly in 2007 when the Lakers’ roster weakened.

It’s said that Michael Jordan never really wanted to leave the Bulls until they dismantled the championship team. But even he threatened to take what the New York Knicks were offering to ensure the Bulls gave him a worthy contract.

But that’s not brought up in an argument against Bron, as Zeke says, “When people have like, when they love a certain player, they’ll never say nothing that makes them feel like they just normal… They’re still people… Everybody got flaws. Everybody want to do something different. If you can go win over here—oh, if he can come over here, bring him. I mean, that’s just human nature.”

His animosity toward Michael Jordan might color that a bit. But he’s not far off about LeBron James shifting the power balance.