Former Pistons great Isiah Thomas said one of Detroit's most infamous sports moments should not have occurred.

Thomas told the Chicago Tribune he shouldn't have led the Pistons in their "walk-off" against the Chicago Bulls in the final seconds of the 1991 Eastern Conference finals.

The Bulls defeated the Pistons in four games and the Pistons eschewed the traditional postgame handshakes and words of congratulations.

"We basically passed the torch to Chicago the way the torch had been passed to us by Boston," Thomas told the Tribune. "Now, looking back on that ... we and I ... we should have shook hands. That was the sportsmanlike thing to do."

Thomas' Pistons were two-time defending NBA champions and on the verge of getting swept by Michael Jordan and the Bulls, after eliminating them three straight years in the postseason. In a rivalry marred with bad blood, the Pistons, led by Thomas and Bill Laimbeer, walked off the court and into The Palace tunnel with eight seconds remaining in the game. They walked past the Bulls bench, without an acknowledgement. It signaled the end of the Pistons' championship run and only Joe Dumars, Vinnie Johnson and John Salley remained to shake hands with the Bulls players.

"At that time, sportsmanship and all that wasn't a big thing in the NBA," Thomas said. "Not saying that we were right; I am definitely saying that we were wrong. The example that should have been set, and the example you want to send to your young kids and everything else is, you know, when you lose, shake the other guy's hand."

Thomas is now head coach at Florida International.

"When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives."
Winter is Coming

Now this is the Law of the Jungle—as old and as true as the sky; And the wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the wolf that shall break it must die.
As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk, the Law runneth forward and back; For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.