Monday night’s loss to the Washington Wizards had a small silver lining, pun intended.
While it wasn’t much fun to see the Boston Celtics lose an eminently winnable game to lowly Washington, former teammates of now-Wiz point guard Isaiah Thomas were happy to see their former teammate thriving in his new home.
Finding his way back into an NBA team’s rotation after being dealt away by Boston in the summer of 2017, IT has found a serious role for a rebuilding Washington franchise to the delight of his teammates left over from his tenure with the Celtics.
That role, filling in for injured starting point guard John Wall, for at least part of last night included the Washington product trying to bait his former coach into a technical foul.
Jaylen Brown on Isaiah Thomas: "Isaiah was a pillar in the community, but also he was very liked. … I don’t think I’ll ever be as liked as he was.”
That, plus pre-game notes: https://t.co/grOssJRvqV pic.twitter.com/F8KmImtkN8
— Tom Westerholm (@Tom_NBA) January 6, 2020
Trapped by rookies Tremont Waters and Grant Williams, Thomas called a questionable timeout, causing Stevens to protest vigorously. Marcus Smart related what happened next (via MassLive’s Tom Westerholm):
“When they trapped IT on the sideline, he lost the ball and called a timeout and the officials awarded him the timeout without the ball … Brad was obviously heated about that, and IT was just egging them on and instigating for Brad to get a tech, because Brad was pretty amped up.”
That hyper-competitive Smart dragged away his friend and opponent away with a smile is a testament to the ties between the short-statured floor general and his ex-teammates.
Even Stevens was amused by the exchange.
“It was good to see him out there playing. It was good to see him happy,” offered the Indiana native.
Thomas has stayed in close contact with his former teammates, as noted by fourth-year wing Jaylen Brown, who bonded with the Tacoma native in his rookie season.
Jaylen on Isaiah: "IT is always sending messages, the public ones, but nobody sees the ones where he’s like, ‘Keep working.’ He’s talking to me sending me text messages like to keep working and he’s happy with my play and stuff I’ve improved."
— Adam Himmelsbach (@AdamHimmelsbach) January 6, 2020
“IT is always sending messages, the public ones, but nobody sees the ones where he’s like, ‘Keep working,'” noted the Cal-Berkeley product (via the Boston Globe’s Adam Himmelsbach).
“He’s talking to me sending me text messages like to keep working and he’s happy with my play and stuff I’ve improved,” he added.
The duo has plenty to to talk about on that front, as both are having their best seasons in some time — Brown the best of his career.
Thomas has had a renaissance of his own in Washington, logging his first decent shooting numbers since the injury that forced his trade from Boston.
But that the ties between a franchise who had to make a cold-blooded move in their quest for a banner and the players torn asunder by it still endure is at least a most palatable sidecar to an annoying, avoidable loss.
[lawrence-related id=27217,25899,20346]