LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers team heading to the 2018 Eastern Conference Finals is a far cry from the dumpster fire that the team was just a few months ago before deciding to commit to a full rebuild in the middle of the season.
Point guard (and one of the notable figures behind the team's early season struggles) Isaiah Thomas has since been traded to the Los Angeles Lakers, but more details around his not so pleasant tenure with the Cavs continue to surface. According to a report by The Score, Thomas was not too fond of the team's ritualistic personal handshake routines.
For those unaware, the Cavaliers entire team has special daps they perform with each other that range from the elementary to the insanely complex. "I’m not sure at what point I’ll become too old to have a handshake like that with someone. But it shows you where we came from, and that we went to battle together," Kevin Love told The Score.
I.T. and the rest of the Cavs roster never quite seemed to gel on or off the court. During games, the team lacked efficiency when he played and he seemed to have not been the greatest locker room presence either—especially with guys like Love. As it turns out, he also hated the idea of the whole handshake thing too. Ironically enough, the report claims that one of the teammates eager to get Thomas integrated into the team's culture when he came back from injury 36 games into the season was Love.
The report reads, "at practice the day before, Love was excited about the possibility of coming up with a personalized handshake with Thomas, who was less enthusiastic about the endeavor. 'That’s not what I do,' Thomas said. 'I just score the basketball.'" Unsurprisingly, the point guard only lasted a month before his eventual trade to LA.
While Thomas will have to watch from home, keep an eye out for some of the Cleveland Cavaliers' choreographed greetings when they kick off their Eastern Conference Finals matchup against the Boston Celtics on Sunday, May 13 at 3:30 p.m. ET.