Isaiah Thomas Leaves With More Motivation Than Ever

Isaiah Thomas could be embarking on the single greatest revenge tour we have ever seen

Throughout Isaiah Thomas‘ entire career he has been overlooked. He has been doubted and told that he would never be good enough. He bounced around teams, getting absolutely no respect. The Celtics traded pennies to get him, and then it looked like everything changed.

Thomas transformed the Celtics in a way that no one could have imagined. Not only did he get a team with lottery level talent into the playoffs, but he also gave them the identity that shaped one of the greatest rebuilds of all time.

Thomas improved his game each and every season with the Celtics, and ran Brad Stevens’ offense in a way that maybe no one else could have. He brought together a group of players that had more than enough issues to break a team down, and not once did his confidence ever waver.

Then, Thomas capped off his tenure with the Celtics with one of the single greatest offensive seasons in the history of the game. He single highhandedly took over the fourth quarter more times than we need to count, and captured the one seed when everyone thought it was impossible.

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He carried this team to the Eastern Conference Finals, and had maybe the most magical and inspiring seasons in the history of the NBA end in the most tragic way possible. Thomas suffered in ways that no one will be able to imagine. He did and gave more than anyone should be able to.

Now, once again, Thomas is back to the same spot he has continued to find himself in. Overlooked and dismissed.

The Celtics made it abundantly clear that his age and injury problems made their confidence falter in his ability to lead this team into the future by trading him away.

Thomas deserved and earned a lot better than that, but Danny Ainge reiterated that his loyalty will always be to making his team as good as possible, rather than to the players that allowed him to get to this point.

That alone would have been enough to send Thomas on a revenge tour like no other. It is bad enough to deal with that kind of treatment from the team that sent him away. To be disrespected like that by the team acquiring him could put the world in uncharted territories when it comes to the most unique player the league has ever seen.

When the trade was first announced, most people looked at Thomas as one of the prized assets. The Nets pick was always top, but Ante Zizic and Jae Crowder appeared to be the throw ins. The Cavaliers made it abundantly clear that was not the case. Instead, they saw Thomas as the throw in, with the front office ready to to back out of the trade because they did not have confidence in Thomas.

Now that we know the extra compensation that was given, the Cavaliers look even worse. Simply put, the Cavaliers were threatening to void the trade to get Thomas, all over a 2020 second round pick.

At first, the talk was about Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum being needed to make this a fair trade. I hope the Cavaliers did not actually bring that up to Ainge, because he would still be laughing right now.

Thomas is now joining another team that appeared to be ready to toss him aside from bare minimum. And by bare minimum I mean the absolute minimum. The Celtics literally could not have given up less to make this deal worth it for the Cavaliers, and Thomas is back in that spot where he is a part of a franchise that does not believe in him, and that should terrify the rest of the league.

There may not be a player in the history of the NBA that has used the outside motivation to improve like Thomas. Every single step of the way, Thomas has proved each and every doubter wrong. At every step in his career, he has shot aside the people that have doubted him, and each and every time it has made him a significantly better player.

Who knows what will happen with Thomas’ hip, and who knows how he will fit in with the Cavaliers. What I know is that Thomas had adapted to each and every condition and obstacle in his career, and after the season he just had, he will be the single most motivated player in the NBA.

Next: Winners and Loers of the Irving-Thomas Trade

Kyrie Irving has a revenge tour of his own, LeBron James has to figure out how to dethrone the unbeatable Warriors, but Thomas is now going to be in a league of his own, and if the rest of his career is any indication, he is going to show the world exactly why overlooking him is the biggest mistake anyone could make.