ESPN NBA

By J.A. Adande

We haven't heard much from Magic Johnson after Isiah Thomas sounded off on Johnson's comments in the book "When The Game Was Ours", but in a conference call with Larry Bird to promote the book on Monday Johnson offered a bit of an explanation as to why he decided to provide further details about the Johnson/Thomas rift, such as Johnson's role in keeping Thomas off of the 1992 Olympic team, at this moment.

"It was time," Johnson said. "We had an incredible relationship, we used to do everything together back in the day, and then that kind of faded. It was a tough period. Probably when we played those two championships [in the 1988 and 1989 NBA Finals] made that happen. Then it just really went in opposite directions from then. Even today, though, I still want Isiah to be successful. I‘m sure he would still want me to be successful even though we’re not where we were with our friendship and everything. Sometimes, what happened with the Olympics and on and on, those things have to be revealed sometime. When [Madison Square Garden's] Steve Mills was deciding on the Knicks job, when he offered it to me, I was the one who told him to call Isiah. Because I thought Isiah could do a good job."

Johnson said that he and Isiah "Haven’t talked. If that day comes then we’ll sit down and talk. If that day doesn’t come, then it doesn’t come. Right now, we've both got a lot to do."