It's been almost two months now since Isaiah Thomas was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Boston Celtics sent Thomas, Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic, the Nets’ 2018 first-round pick, and the Heat’s second-round pick in 2020 in exchange for Kyrie Irving. But it doesn't sound like Thomas has totally come to terms with it just yet.
In a recent piece on Thomas published by Sports Illustrated, reporter Lee Jenkins revealed that Celtics coach Brad Stevens texted Thomas following the trade and said, "I’ve been looking at this wall for five hours," before adding that he was "trying to figure out what to say to you." The move came as a shock to Stevens, and it came as a shock to Thomas, too, who played through injuries and the death of his sister last season only to have Celtics general manager and basketball of operations Danny Ainge ship him off this summer.
But it's not the first time Thomas has had a team turn his back on him, and he spoke about the other instances in the SI piece. After he was traded from the Sacramento Kings to the Phoenix Suns in 2014, he told SI that he told himself, "F--- Sacramento. I'm about to kill those dues." When the Suns dealt him to the Celtics in 2015, he thought, "O.K., now they're gonna get it." And while he's decided to take a different approach to the situation with Boston—"Boston is going to be all love," he said—he admitted he's not going to forget about what Ainge, in particular, did anytime soon.
"I might not ever talk to Danny again," Thomas said. "That might not happen. I’ll talk to everybody else. But what he did, knowing everything I went through, you don’t do that, bro. That’s not right. I’m not saying eff you. But every team in this situation comes out a year or two later and says, 'We made a mistake.' That’s what they’ll say, too."
Elsewhere in the interview, Thomas also discussed his nagging hip injury, which prevented him from playing in playoff games for the Celtics last season. He admitted he probably should have sat out the entirety of the postseason due to the injury. "No doubt about it, I should have sat out the playoffs," Thomas said. "No way around it, I made it worse." The Cavaliers are hoping Thomas will be recovered and ready to play again around December or January, though he could be out longer than that.
Head over to Sports Illustrated to read Jenkins' full piece on Thomas.
