This was the moment Isaiah Thomas had always dreamed of.
For years, the diminutive guard bounced from team to team, constantly seeking two things: respect and a place to call home. Here, playing for the Boston Celtics, Thomas had found both.
However, he has failed to recapture either of them since the Celtics traded him away in 2017. And, as Thomas slowly walked from the visitors’ tunnel to the Denver Nuggets’ bench at the 7:06 mark of the first quarter of Monday night’s game at TD Garden while a tribute video celebrating his two-plus seasons with Boston played on the Jumbotron above him, that fact seemed to hit him all at once.
“I was emotional,” Thomas would say later. “I almost cried.”
When the video ended, Thomas saluted the crowd — first by flashing a peace sign, then by tapping his left wrist twice, signaling it was, for one final time here, “IT Time” — as the standing ovation for him, and his accomplishments in Boston, lasted for more than a minute.
“It was special,” Thomas would say later.
“That was everything. I appreciate them for doing that.
“That means a lot.”
It was a reminder of how special his run here was, as was his connection with these fans. It also was a reminder of just how far away from that player he is today.
Time catches up to everyone eventually on a basketball court. Some athletes — quarterbacks, pitchers, golfers are all examples — can at least temporarily overcome age by sheer skill. In those instances, the brain can make up for what the body lacks.
Basketball, however, is not one of those sports. Sure, some of the greats have managed to endure into their late 30s. But most of those players — Tim Duncan and Karl Malone, for example — have the one other thing that doesn’t change with age: size. Whether someone is 20 or 40, they remain 7 feet tall.
Or, in the case of Isaiah Thomas, they remain 5-foot-9. (Maybe.)
