Before Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown teamed up as co-leaders of the Boston Celtics, 5-foot-9 guard Isaiah Thomas He carried the torch of leadership, earned the nickname “King of the Fourth” and went from being the last pick in the 2011 NBA Draft to a legitimate MVP candidate.
Thomas had reached the peak of his career, in one of the most dynamic and high-pressure markets in sports, leading to the two-time All-Star’s eligibility for free agency. But it all ended catastrophically after one of then-Celtics general manager Danny Ainge’s marquee trades — from the Phoenix Suns in 2015 — when Thomas injured his hip in the 2017 Eastern Conference semifinals against the Washington Wizards. Thomas fought through the pain, averaging a team-best 27.4 points. scored 53 points in Game 2 — the second-most points scored by a Celtic in a playoff game — and helped send Boston to the Conference Finals against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. It marked Thomas’ heroic end in a Celtics uniform, leaving sweet sentimental memories in the minds of Boston fans while leaving a bittersweet taste as Thomas headed to Cleveland in a blockbuster trade a few months later.
“I’m angry because I put my career on the line for something you could have said to me and told me,” Thomas explained during an appearance on “Knuckleheads Podcast” with Quentin Richardson and Darius Miles. “…It took me three years to get back to who I am and figure out what was going on, but it was a tough situation. It was a learning experience for myself. I really loved Boston and everyone in that organization. It was really the wrong way to go about it. I don’t blame Boston, I don’t blame those guys. People know what happened, it’s documented. It was just a disastrous situation and it happened to me.”
Understandably, given Ainge’s position, the Celtics traded Thomas—along with Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic, and an unprotected 2018 first-round pick (Colin Sexton)—for Kyrie Irving. In real time, the trade seemed like an automatic win for Boston. The Celtics were getting a Hall of Fame talent with NBA Finals experience to take on James and the Cavaliers, but by all accounts, the biggest trade of the 2017 offseason hasn’t aged well for either side. Irving suffered a nasty falling out with the city of Boston, and Thomas never regained his previous All-Star form, even though Cleveland needed him to. But once again, Thomas bit the hardest bullet of all parties involved. Rather than sit at the negotiating table waiting for a well-deserved payday, Thomas stepped away from NBA stardom for short-term stints as a road tripper.
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Most recently, Thomas earned a spot behind the bench last season, ironically, with the Suns reaching their competitive stage. Thomas first received a G League offer from the Utah Jazz, now coached by Ainge, which Thomas, now 35, accepted after averaging 32.5 points on 40.7 percent shooting with three rebounds and 5.3 assists in four games before Phoenix signed him to a 30-month contract extension. NBA contract offer for the remainder of the 2023-24 season — which Thomas agreed to. It wasn’t easy to accept a limited role on the bench, especially while watching the Celtics accomplish the mission Thomas was striving to achieve in Boston, now from afar, but enduring the death of a loved one (Chyna Thomas) and a career-altering injury overshadowed the obvious frustrations of saying goodbye to Boston.
“I understand how the game works. I didn’t fight it and say, ‘Oh, I got traded, I’m mad,'” Thomas told Richardson and Miles. “That’s just the way it happened. I was a franchise player at that point, so as you know, I should have told them that’s what can happen. I’m the Boston Celtics franchise at that point. But you live and you learn. You move on. I’m healthy again, I’m fine, I’m not hurting anymore. But I went through real life (expletive) with my sister, I got traded, I got hurt. I always say it was the best year of my career and the worst year of my life – at the same time. Think about it.”
