{"id":92911,"date":"2024-08-28T00:29:35","date_gmt":"2024-08-28T04:29:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=92911"},"modified":"2024-08-31T02:21:11","modified_gmt":"2024-08-31T06:21:11","slug":"isaiah-thomas-breaks-down-biggest-celtics-disappointment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/08\/28\/isaiah-thomas-breaks-down-biggest-celtics-disappointment\/","title":{"rendered":"Isaiah Thomas Breaks Down Biggest Celtics Disappointment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The rise and fall of former NBA star <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/t\/thomais02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Isaiah Thomas<\/a> is one for the books. Drafted by the Sacramento Kings with the last pick in the 2011 NBA Draft, Thomas eventually took over the team with his shot-making and clutch gene. He was then dealt to the Phoenix Suns for a trade exception before being sent to the Boston Celtics half a year later. It was with the Celtics, the most esteemed NBA franchise, that Thomas transformed into a star.<\/p>\n<h2>Isaiah Thomas Breaks Down Biggest Celtics Disappointment<\/h2>\n<p>While helping lead Boston to the playoffs in three consecutive seasons, Thomas was named an All-Star in back-to-back seasons. In 2016-17, he earned the fifth-most MVP votes after averaging a career-high 28.9 points per game. At the time, his 2016-17 scoring average was the second-highest in Celtics history. In fact, Thomas was such a proficient scorer, he\u2019s still Boston\u2019s all-time leader in points per game (24.7).<\/p>\n<p>Thomas. The 60th overall pick. For a franchise with 18 NBA championships.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"15 Minutes of Isaiah Thomas Best Celtics Plays &amp; Moments\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Znmk4bXNgvU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In the postseason, Thomas played with the same verve, but that\u2019s where the wheels fell off. After deciding to play through an injury in the 2017 NBA Playoffs, the Washington native\u2019s career took a rapid turn. Instead of shining under the spotlight, Thomas was on the operating table.<\/p>\n<p>The Celtics then traded him to the Cleveland Cavaliers, who traded him to the Los Angeles Lakers. Due to another season-ending hip surgery, he only played 17 games with LA. The next season, Thomas played 12 games with the Denver Nuggets after recovering from the procedure. This pattern has repeated ever since, with Thomas\u2019s most recent NBA stint being <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/04\/09\/beloved-guard-signs-with-suns-for-rest-of-season-isaiah-thomas\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">a one-month stretch<\/a> with the Phoenix Suns.<\/p>\n<p>To think, it all started because of the Celtics\u2019 mistakes. That\u2019s what, in the words of NBA villain Noah Lyles, hurts him the most.<\/p>\n<h3>The Massachusetts Misdiagnoses<\/h3>\n<p>\u201cWhen I got traded to Cleveland, I was upset,\u201d Thomas tells <em>Knuckleheads<\/em> co-hosts Quentin Richardson and Darius Miles. \u201cBecause, at that point, I put my career on the line for something you could have just broke down to me and told me, \u2018If you do play, or if we do this, it could possibly be what it happened to be.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Isaiah Thomas on Leading Boston to #1 Seed, Selected Last in Draft, Recovering from Injury &amp; More\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/01IFqHecWzY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt took me three years to really get back to who I am and figure out what was going on,\u201d the 35-year-old continues. \u201cBut it was a tough situation.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cIt was a learning experience for myself. I got real love for Boston and everybody in that organization. It was definitely the wrong way to go about things. I\u2019m not blaming Boston, I\u2019m not blaming those guys\u2026 It was just a messed up situation and it happened to be with me. And it sucks because so much was on the line. If I got All-NBA that following year, I\u2019m a supermax (contract) guy.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Thomas then breaks down how and when it all went wrong.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;At this point, it\u2019s still a \u2018bone bruise.\u2019 There isn\u2019t nothing else diagnosed. It\u2019s just like it can\u2019t get any worse;,that\u2019s what was stated. Fast forward, that\u2019s what I was very upset about. Like if you tell me, &#8216;This can possibly get worse, this is what you have, then it&#8217;s on me to make the choice. But it was none of that stated.<\/p>\n<p>I went in like, &#8216;Okay, I got a bone bruise, I can figure this out like I&#8217;ve done my whole life&#8230; They shoot me up again to go into the Wizards series, I got shot up three times; every round. The last one was right before Game 7 of the Wizards series\u2026 Then in Game 2 (of the Cavs series), I remember get hit by a screen, and it just shoots to the back of my hip, and I&#8217;m like, \u2018What the\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Like, I\u2019ve never felt this pain before. So we go into halftime, Danny Ainge and all (the doctors) are back there. They\u2019re like you\u2019re done, it\u2019s a wrap. We gotta go to the doctor. We gotta figure this out.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>As Thomas recounts his experience, other players in similar situations may come to mind. Future Hall of Fame forward <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/duranke01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kevin Durant<\/a> is thought to have been misdiagnosed before rupturing his Achilles in 2019. However, Thomas\u2019s situation is particularly unfortunate.<\/p>\n<h3>It\u2019s Truly A Tragedy<\/h3>\n<p>As Thomas notes, had he been healthy, he likely would\u2019ve been able to secure a supermax contract that could\u2019ve been worth over $200 million. Now, he\u2019s fighting <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/08\/23\/nba-best-point-guards-remaining-in-free-agency\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">just to earn the veteran\u2019s minimum<\/a>. On top of that, Thomas was putting the Celtics on his back while going through a tragic situation. His younger sister, Chyna, had just passed away in a car accident. He didn\u2019t have to be on the court at all, let alone playing through an injury.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The rise and fall of former NBA star Isaiah Thomas is one for the books. Drafted by the Sacramento Kings with the last pick in the 2011 NBA Draft, Thomas eventually took over the team with his shot-making and clutch gene. He was then dealt to the Phoenix Suns for a trade exception before being [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":92920,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,5,62,36],"tags":[171,4745,596,1382],"class_list":["post-92911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-celtics","category-nba","category-podcasts","tag-isaiah-thomas","tag-nba-injuries","tag-nba-playoffs","tag-nba-trade"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}