All-Star honor a first step for Isaiah Thomas

BOSTON – The switch came at around 10 seconds, fourth quarter, the Boston Celtics down two, with Los Angeles Clippers center DeAndre Jordan, all 6-foot-11, 265 pounds of him, stepping out to defend Isaiah Thomas. Jordan. Growing up, Thomas knew plenty of players like him. Tall, rangy, teeming with athleticism. Jordan was the kind of player who drew the attention of college scouts, not 5-9 kids who had to beg their fathers for some run against headband-clad men in rec league games.

Nine

Thomas begins his drive, a little hesitation dribble followed by a quick burst into Jordan’s midsection. Standing in the paint is Chris Paul, Thomas’ longtime friend, his mentor, a player Thomas calls his big brother. As a teenager, Thomas would attend Paul’s camps in North Carolina. Coaches there paid little attention to him then. When he returned later, as a pro, some of the same coaches swore up and down they knew Thomas was going to make it. “OK,” Thomas said to himself. “You think I don’t remember?”

Eight

Thomas steps back, elevates and lofts a fadeaway over Jordan’s outstretched fingertips. There is so much control to Thomas’ game. Years earlier, Thomas might have been a little more reckless. He entered the NBA in 2011 with so much fire, the 60th pick in the draft with a boulder-sized chip on his shoulder. In his second year in Sacramento, Thomas recalls a game against the Lakers, frontlined then by Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol. Play after play, Thomas attacked the rim. Shot after shot was sent back. The next day, Kings assistant coach Bobby Jackson pulled Thomas aside. “This isn’t going to work,” Jackson told Thomas. “You need to figure something else out.” From that, the fadeaway, the runner and a diverse array of defender-shielding moves were born.

Seven

The ball slipped through the net, whipping the 18,186 crammed into the building into a frenzy, two of Thomas’s 36 points in an eventual 139-134 overtime win over Los Angeles on Wednesday. This is what Thomas wanted. To be appreciated. To be respected. To be considered one of the best. It’s what pushes him into the gym late at night on road trips and fuels him when faced with matchups no one expects him to win.

“Say a guy comes to a game and he doesn't know any of the players playing,” Thomas told The Vertical. “I want him to leave that gym and be like, ‘I don't know him, but he was the best player on that court.’ That's my mindset every time I step on the floor.”

It’s worked for Thomas, a first time All-Star, averaging career highs in points (21.5) and assists (6.6) this season. It’s worked for Boston, too. No team in the Eastern Conference is hotter than the Celtics, winners of 10 of their past 12, a run that has included a win in Cleveland that rattled a few people in the Cavs organization. Cleveland officials will tell you: Boston’s game plan against the Cavaliers in last year’s playoffs was as good as any. The talent gap powered Cleveland to a four-game sweep in that first-round series, but the Cavs – and every team in the conference – see the Celtics coming.

“They could make a run,” said Clippers coach Doc Rivers. “Listen, they are not scared of anybody. They have a bunch of junkyard dogs who can play. You better be ready when you play them or you’re going to lose to them.”

More than two years removed from the disassembling of its championship-winning core, Boston has assembled key pieces to a potential new one. There are defensive stoppers (Jae Crowder, Marcus Smart, Avery Bradley) on the perimeter, skilled bigs (Kelly Olynyk, Jared Sullinger) up front and a head coach (Brad Stevens) whose rep as an elite play-caller grows by the day.

At the heart of it all is Thomas, the relentless playmaker who oozes determination. Last season’s trade to Boston has done so much for Thomas. He was united with Danny Ainge, the Celtics president and general manager who aggressively pursued Thomas as a free agent in 2014. It didn’t work out then, but Ainge eagerly jumped at the chance to get Thomas when a retooling Suns team made him available last year. Ainge has hammered home the importance of Thomas preserving his body, mandating that he get a massage after every game.

Thomas teamed with Stevens, who started him, trusted him, empowered him in ways no coach had done before. That confidence has settled Thomas some. Once, games were personal, a bleep-you opportunity for a player everyone passed over. Take the Los Angeles Lakers. In 2011, Los Angeles held four picks in the second round of the draft. It didn’t promise to use one on Thomas but, Thomas told The Vertical, came as close as you could to doing it. Thomas still remembers who the Lakers picked over him – “Darius Morris, Andrew Goudelock and two guys [Chukwudiebere Maduabum and Ater Majok] who never played in the NBA,” Thomas said – and for years was consumed by it every time he played them.

No more. Boston has changed him, leveled him off. It’s made him seek higher goals. He’s an All-Star, but next year he wants to be a starter. He’s an elite point guard, but he wants to go down as one of the best little men of all time. He cedes the top spot to Allen Iverson, but refuses to believe he can’t surpass the accomplishments of anyone else. Boston’s equipment manager, John Connor, calls Thomas “Allen Iverson II,” a nickname Thomas loves and is determined to live up to.

“AI is pound-for-pound the best player ever, in my opinion,” Thomas told The Vertical. “So everybody under Allen Iverson, I'm trying to be better than them.”

Off to Toronto goes Thomas, to the All-Star Game, to the stage on which he has long felt he belonged. He will return to a Boston team suddenly steeped in expectations, expected to not just make the playoffs but advance deep into them. Thomas wouldn’t have it any other way. As he walked off the floor on Wednesday, a smattering of fans chanted “M-V-P” in his direction. Hey, what’s one more goal to add to the list.

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