When playing in a certain city for an extended amount of time, it’s typical for a player-city bond to be created unconsciously, especially when said player is a star. This is exactly what happened with Isaiah Thomas during his stint with the Boston Celtics. Thomas grew into a fan favorite and he returned the love with his play, turning in inspired performances throughout his Boston career and especially during last year’s postseason.
Now a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers after being traded, Thomas reflected on his time with the Celtics in a recent farewell letter that was published in The Players Tribune. When speaking specifically on the trade, Thomas unsurprisingly had strong opinions on the deal, one of them being that the Celtics didn’t improve despite landing a superstar in Kyrie Irving:
It’s not that I don’t understand it. Of course I get it: This is a business. Danny is a businessman, and he made a business move. I don’t agree with it, just personally, and I don’t think the Boston Celtics got better by making this trade. But that’s not my job. That’s Danny’s. And it’s a tough job, and he’s been really good at it.
It’s fair for Isaiah Thomas to believe the Celtics didn’t improve much from the deal though they got the most valuable piece in Kyrie Irving. Along with Thomas who is a star in his own right and one of the more explosive scorers, the Cavs received 3 and D wing Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic, and of course, the highly-coveted first round pick of the Brooklyn Nets in 2018.
For Boston though, they got the centerpiece they’ve always wanted and will avoid dishing out max dollars to an undersized point guard who is putrid on the defensive end. While Cleveland got the better haul and have better set themselves up for their uncertain future, Boston got an upgrade at point guard and a bonafide winner, plus Crowder had also become largely expendable to them due to their abundance of young forwards.
A case could certainly be made for both sides in this trade but one thing is for certain: the bad blood is not lacking between these two frontrunners in the East who will be battling for conference supremacy all season long.
