Isaiah Thomas Comes ‘Home’ In His Return To Boston

BOSTON — Every sports fan has loved a player, but it’s rare that a player has felt the type of love that Boston Celtics fans have for Isaiah Thomas. Despite his diminutive stature — we decided to get our journalistically required reference to Thomas’ height out of the way early — Thomas shouldered the load for the Celtics in one of the more remarkable individual seasons in recent memory, leading the team to an Eastern Conference-best 53-29 record while averaging 28.9 points per game with the best fourth quarter scoring mark in the NBA during the 2016-17 campaign.

Thomas gave everything he had to the Celtics that year, playing for the team during the postseason in the immediate aftermath of his sister passing away and taking the floor despite a nagging hip injury that has turned the last year and a half of his basketball playing life into, essentially, one gigantic albatross. Watching Isaiah Thomas play basketball is supposed to be fun. Watching the recent version of Isaiah Thomas that has tried to get back to that point has, largely, not been all that enjoyable.

Currently, Thomas is lumbering on the Denver Nuggets in search of a hot streak that moderately resembles the extended run of form that made him perhaps the most exciting player in the league during his halcyon days. Everyone remembers the lightning in a bottle feeling that came with watching Thomas at his peak, but unlike fans of the NBA’s other 29 teams, the Boston faithful pined their hopes on dreams on Thomas’ ability to get the job done.

“Home,” Thomas called Boston after Monday’s game between the Nuggets and the Celtics in Beantown. “I went through a real life situation here when I lost my sister; this whole city and organization went through it with me, and I think that’s why … the love is always here but that took it to another level. I went through the worst situation you could possibly go through in life with these people and they were right there with me, everybody in the city, organization, they was right there, they went through that with me.”

Monday night was a reminder that those feelings never died — in fact, you can argue absence has made the heart grow fonder. Thomas played in TD Garden for the first time since he was moved to Cleveland as part of the package that landed the Celtics Kyrie Irving, a game that ended with a 114-105 Nuggets win. You could feel his impact before he even stepped on the floor — numerous Boston jerseys with his name and number peppered the stands, while the team aired a tribute video for him at the first stoppage in play, ostensibly because there were no plans to honor Paul Pierce at any point that evening.

Thomas checked in at the 2:42 mark of the first quarter but didn’t do much, doling out two assists while shooting 0-for-2 from the field for no points in seven minutes even though the home fans were doing everything they collectively could to will the ball through the net. That ended up being the extent of Thomas’ game time — Nuggets head coach Michael Malone pointed out that Denver went small with Thomas in the game, and when the Celtics responded by going big and finding success, he scrapped that idea. Before fans could get up to grab a drink or go to the bathroom for halftime, Thomas’ night was over.

The much larger question on everyone’s mind was what’s next for Thomas, a 30-year-old defensive liability whose ability to positively impact a game stems from his ability to operate a flamethrower on the offensive end of the floor. No one really seems to know — Thomas made it a point to say he’s a Nugget now, and that he’s “thankful to this organization that has taken me in with open arms and given me an opportunity.” This came after Malone dropped him from Denver’s rotation last week, something that Thomas said really irked him.

“It feels good to see all these guys in person and just get that love,” Thomas said. “Right now, I need that love, I’ve been to so much these last two years, and then coming back and then getting out of the rotation, all those things. But at the end of the day, I’m human, so getting love and genuine love, it always feels good for the body, for the mind, for everything.”

Malone stressed Thomas getting dropped from the rotation wasn’t because the team struggled due to his presence, and called any such insinuations “unfair.” He did, however, make it a point to praise the role Thomas played while he was working his way back onto the floor after hip surgery as a mentor to Jamal Murray and Monte Morris.

“He’s pissed off,” Malone said after the win. “I’m OK with that, I really am, I know it’s not personal, it’s about Isaiah being who he is, and as I told him a couple times including tonight, ‘I love you, when this is over, my hope is that you’ll look back and say it’s never personal, I’m just trying to do what’s best for our team and never for any individual.’ I’m thankful he’s here, even when he’s not playing, he’s had a huge impact on that group, and I’m so appreciative of that.”

There will always be a team that covets Thomas’ leadership. Whether he can be anything more than a leader and an honest-to-God contributor going forward remains to be seen, and while Malone admittedly isn’t sure if he can get to that point, he knows better than to bet against Thomas.

“I will say this,” Malone said. “If anybody can do it, it’s him.”

Thomas desperately wants another shot to show he can still get the job done — an unparalleled sense of belief in himself and his ability to lead on and off the court has been a hallmark of Thomas’ game going back to his time at the University of Washington, and more than anything, it might be the reason why he’s made it this far. He made it clear that he believes his body at a place where he can get back to the form that made him a Boston sports legend.

“I can be an All-Star, I can be All-NBA, I can be all that, because I physically feel great,” Thomas said. “It’s all about the opportunity. If I get an opportunity I’m going to be ready for it, I’m going to take full advantage of it.”

Perhaps that opportunity will pop up with the Celtics — Thomas told the press that playing in Boston was “the most fun times of my career,” and that suiting up in the green and white was life-altering, making it so “the world knew my name.” He made it clear earlier in the day that he’d love to make it back to Beantown, and before the game tipped off, he admitted it’d make for one heck of a chapter in the book that is his basketball playing career.

“If I end up back here at some point,” Thomas said, “that’ll make the story that much better.”

But the thing that was evident on Monday night was that love is a powerful thing, and if it’s strong enough, there is nothing that love can’t overcome — no distance too far, no amount of time too much. There’s a requited love that the city of Boston and Thomas will forever have for one another, the type of strong emotional attachment between two sides that cannot be faked. Even if he never plays for the Celtics again, the bond formed during Thomas’ time in the city will stick with him forever.

“There was times where, after I got traded, I sat back and, like, really thought about things that I’ve done as an individual, things that we’ve done as a team, and those were amazing moments that I cherish for the rest of my life,” Thomas said. “Those moments are everything, and we did some legendary sh*t, I did some legendary sh*t, too. I’m just appreciative of those moments, I’m appreciative of being able to play for the Boston Celtics.”