The story of Isaiah Thomas‘s time in Cleveland is quite strange. Thomas was a bit of a tragic figure in Cleveland until recently, as the Cavs quickly gave up on him after missing half the regular season rehabbing his hip injury following a trade from Boston.
Thomas was traded by Cleveland to the Los Angeles Lakers in a deadline deal that essentially hit the reset button on the Cavs in an effort to contend in the East and, just maybe, convince James to stick around despite his free agency. He didn’t, though, signing with the same Lakers with which Thomas finished his season, even though the former All-NBA guard is now a Denver Nugget.
It seems there’s some bad blood between IT and Cleveland despite the fact that this is all in the past. Thomas called the city of Cleveland a “sh*thole” on Instagram on Saturday night during a live video where he said he knew why James would leave town multiple times.
Isaiah Thomas on his time in Cleveland… 👀 pic.twitter.com/xsailU04BA
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) August 12, 2018
The video continued and he tried to backtrack a bit, but it’s still a pretty inflammatory comment.
I went to look at Isaiah Thomas' IG Live and he JUST said, "Cleveland was cool. I shouldn't have said that … That was my bad. That was a bad word choice. It just was different." Whoops. https://t.co/XbUIH8DfBI
— Alysha Tsuji (@AlyshaTsuji) August 12, 2018
Thomas later apologized on Twitter as well, but the damage had already been done.
I apologize for my choice of words about Cleveland. I was on my live playing around. They don’t show you everything for a reason smh. Right after that I clarified what I said…. All love to everybody who had love for me in Cleveland.
— Isaiah Thomas (@isaiahthomas) August 12, 2018
Athletes throwing shade at the places where they once played rarely goes over well, especially for a guy who didn’t stick around very long to get to know the place for himself. He was almost certainly kidding, but in the quiet parts of summer, a former player dragging a former city is news.
