Isaiah Thomas’ All Star Snub is Bad News for the East

Isaiah Thomas is once again overlooked as he is snubbed of a starting position in the All Star game

At every step of his career, Isaiah Thomas has been doubted. No one expected a player of his size to have any chance of making the NBA, but he worked his way to getting drafted. The problem there, however, is that Thomas was drafted with the very last selection. He was told not to pursue this dream and once it was in reach, very few were interested in giving him a chance.

Then things did not get better as his NBA career started. Despite putting up solid numbers with the Kings, they did not believe in him. He then got stuck in a cluttered back court on the Suns, and they opted to trade him away for a minimal return while picking multiple guards over him.

Thomas landed in the perfect spot and immediate had the kind of impact on the Boston Celtics that everyone thought was impossible. Then, once again, he was overlooked and snubbed of the sixth man of the year award, despite turning around Boston’s season and carrying them to the playoffs while coming off the bench.

Now, Thomas has become one of the defintive stories of the NBA this season, has improved his game in every area possible, and is doing things in the fourth quarter that have never been done before. Thomas is the highest scoring guard in the East, has the best assist to turnover ratio out of all the East All Stars, is the league’s leading scorer in the fourth quarter, with a great chance to boast the best fourth quarter PER of the last 20 years.

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Thomas is doing all of this with less minutes per game than any of his counter parts, and he is doing it on one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference. He is not just having a great season, he is having a historically great season. And yet, he still does not get the respect he deserves. He is still slandered for playing defense as well as some of his counter parts that have over six inches of height on him.

One of the most relateable players in the NBA, one of the biggest underdogs the league has ever seen, who has overcome more adversity on the court than maybe anyone else, still cannot get the popular vote from the fans, and that is not being made up for by any other factors in the All Star process.

Thomas has improved each season with the Celtics. He continues to redefine what can be expected of him and he never settles at any point, continuing to adjust his goals to be one of the best players the league has ever seen. And, somehow, at the same time, that chip continues to grow, once again giving him even more motivation.

There is no player who as much fun on the court as Thomas, and there is no one that is more determined to prove all those outsiders wrong. Thomas does not need to start in the All Star game. He does not need that recognition because he has gone his entire career without it, and has proven that he will use this motivation to get better every day.

The All Star game is a spectacle for the fans, so it seems a little counter productive to ridicule their selections, but these are the things that Thomas does not forget. All the obstacles have contributed to the player that he is today, and he will work harder than anone else in the legaue to make sure this All Star snub makes him an even better player.

As fun as it would have been to see Thomas, the smallest player in the game, as a starter, it will be even more fun to watch him prove even more doubters wrong, while he continues down what could shape up to be one of the most impressive seasons for a point guard in the history of the most storied franchise in the NBA.

Thomas and his teammates know what he is doing on the court and, ultimately, that is all that matters. Everything else is just noise from the outside. Unfortunately for the rest of the league, that noise will be pushing Thomas even harder and is giving the most motivated player in the NBA even more incentive to break down the barriers of what he should be capable of doing.

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Somehow, Thomas still has to deal with people telling him what he is not capable of doing. Thomas is doing things and overcoming things that maybe no one else in the history of the NBA has done, and still people cannot seem to keep bringing up what they beleive he cannot do. Newsflash to all those calling out to what he is not capable of on the court: Thomas has not only already proven that he will do what should be impossible, but he will continue to find those things people beleive he cannot do, so he can make it abundantly clear that there is nothing that can get in his way of reaching the pinnacle of the NBA.