Former Celtics star Isaiah Thomas recently appeared on the Knuckleheads podcast with Quentin Richardson and Darius Miles.
The two-time All-Star had been asked about his old stomping grounds with the Boston Celtics, where Thomas had made his name solidifying himself in Celtics and NBA history in his quick rise to stardom. His 2017 campaign, where the guard recorded one of the greatest Celtics’ scoring seasons ever, briefly had him rising to the pinnacle of the NBA, before Boston suddenly unloaded him the following summer for Kyrie Irving.
Thomas put the franchise back on the map in contention before the Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown era existed.
“The feeling playing for the Celtics is amazing, and then the love you get,” Thomas said. “The love is, like the love that I get to this day, you would think I won a championship there, you would think I had a 10-year career there. Like the love is, I can’t even, I can’t even describe it.”
Thomas became one of Boston’s all-time leading scorers, putting up 28.9 points per game. He earned an All-NBA Second Team selection. He dominated in the fourth quarter as the league’s best scorer by points per game in the final frame.
Taking the one-seeded Celtics all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals on an injured hip, Thomas’s dominant run included a 53-point outing against the Washington Wizards in the Semifinals.
The 2017 MVP candidate had 29 in the fourth and overtime, all on his sister’s Birthday, who passed away tragically in the beginning of the postseason. Thomas was fueled, powering through the unspeakable pain to produce one of the most memorable performances.
“Every time I go to Boston, every time I’m on social media, every time… It doesn’t matter,” added Thomas. “Like you would think my jersey is retired in them stands. The love that they give me, and the love that I got there from day one, like you said, is just different. It’s just, it’s hard to explain. Like you got to put on that Celtics jersey to appreciate the energy and love that that city gives you, for just putting your heart and hat on every day.”
In his two-plus seasons donning Kelly green, Thomas represented and connected with the city of Boston in a unique way, forming an unbreakable bond with a region that loves a blue-collar underdog defying the odds as much as any part of the map does.
“I think that’s why they gave me the love that I got, because first off, my story and who I am is relatable to the everyday person,” Thomas said. “But also just the blood, sweat, and tears I put in that. That love is genuine, I got real love for Boston.”
