All-Star, fifth in the voting for the regular season MVP trophy and author of a year with an average of 28.9 points, Isaiah Thomas is at the top in 2016/17. He is then only 28 years old and his future looks bright, in a competitive team.
We know what happened next: a hip injury, a transfer to Cleveland in the summer of 2017 and a gradual disappearance, moving from team to team, without ever finding his best level. Inevitably, this superb season in Boston remains a bitter memory, with this injury still haunting him.
“In March 2017, we played the Wolves. I went into the paint, Karl-Anthony Towns fell on me. I hurt my knee on this play, not my hip. I rested for two games”he remembers perfectly (the match was on March 15 and he will miss the next two) for the podcast . “Then I felt discomfort in my hip. But I had tests done and we were getting closer to the end of the season. I don't feel anything anymore at the time of the playoffs because I'm on treatment. So with injections, I don't have any more pain, I feel good. And at this stage, it's still a bone bruise. It can't get worse.”
It's that last sentence that's at the center of Isaiah Thomas' resentment. He trusted that diagnosis, pushed through the playoffs and, as a result, damaged his body.
“That's what hurts me the most: nothing has been explained to me. If I'm told that I could possibly make my injury worse, then I make a decision,” says the playmaker. “But nothing was told to me. I went in because I thought I had a bone bruise, I thought I'd deal with it like I always did. I've had three shots during each playoff series. The last time was before Game 7 against the Wizards.”
“I put my career on the line for something that could have been explained to me clearly”
Against Washington, we also remember that he had scored 53 points, after having undergone several hours of treatment after a tooth injury and on the birthday of his sister Chyna (who would have been 23), who died suddenly in a car accident three weeks before. This game is undoubtedly his best in his career, the most memorable. Then, in the conference final, against the Cavaliers, he did not finish the series…
“For the first game against the Cavaliers, I can play, but I feel the pain, I can't move the way I want. I'm clearly not myself. In Game 2, I take a screen and it hits me in the back of my hip,” he continues. “We get to half-time and the doctors tell me it's over, we're going to do some tests. I know then that something is wrong, but I don't think the worst. My season is over.”
The medical appointments will confirm that the worst has indeed happened. It is the beginning of the end. “We go to a doctor in New York who tells me it's worse than we thought. The injections made things worse. Then I'm transferred to Cleveland and I'm angry because, at that point, I put my career on the line for something that could have been explained to me clearly,” insists Isaiah Thomas. “It took me three years to get back to who I was. It was a tough pill to swallow. I learned and I have a lot of love for Boston and the people in this franchise, but clearly, it wasn't the best way to go about it.”
