Isaiah Thomas has a permanent chip on his shoulder. He hasn’t described himself in quite those terms, but he has a history of taking the business side of the NBA personally. This isn’t a knock on Thomas, by the way. It’s that same tenacity and desire to prove he’s one of the NBA’s elite that’s molded Thomas into the player he is today. He wouldn’t be Isaiah Thomas without it.
Considering what we know about Isaiah Thomas, his reaction to the stunning Kyrie Irving trade that went down this summer isn’t all that surprising. Thomas had a fantastic 2016-17 season in Boston, and it felt like there was a lot of mutual love between he and the Celtics organization. The NBA is a business, as we keep hearing over and over, but there was something particularly cold about the way Danny Ainge shipped Thomas off to Cleveland as soon as a point guard upgrade became available.
Thomas clearly felt the same way, as he told Sports Illustrated‘s Lee Jenkins that he may never speak to Ainge again. You don’t say something like that if you aren’t harboring any ill will. Thomas probably felt slighted by the trade, and that’s fine. That’s a human reaction.
This saga took another miniature twist on Friday afternoon when Isaiah Thomas fired back at a Twitter user that claimed that Thomas is just “butt hurt Celts traded you.” The original tweet has been deleted, but you can view Thomas’ response below.
https://twitter.com/Isaiah_Thomas/status/921410635539386374
https://twitter.com/Isaiah_Thomas/status/921415636470857729
So, yeah, Thomas thoroughly shut down the notion that his anti-Ainge, or anti-Celtics comments were simply out of anger, or whatever butt-hurtedness may mean.
It’s also abundantly clear that NBA players have taken the gloves off when it comes to dealing with negative Twitter comments. Kevin Durant had been roasting Twitter users all summer, and now we’ve got Isaiah Thomas going for the kill in his first response. You’ve been warned.
