Celtics stoke the flame, openly troll Isaiah Thomas with playoff shirts

Inside Isaiah Thomas, there is a fire that burns.

It's a flame lit with the kindling of being a 5'9", the last pick in the draft, and shipped off a couple times early in his career. Even taking his career to the next level and getting selected to an All-Star team this year, that fire in Isaiah still rages. He has an ongoing feud with Gary Tanguay regarding the Celtics lack of a cornerstone star and even when he's getting some All-NBA love from the Celtics he still sarcastically brings up the narrative that he's not a foundational player. It's all working wonderfully for Thomas, who's averaging 22.4 points and 6.3 assists a game and looks to take sole possession of the franchise's consecutive 20-point game streak tonight against the Bucks. He currently shares the mark of 17 straight 20 point games with Larry Joe Bird. So naturally the Celtics decided to pour some fuel on Isaiah's internal inferno with their (somewhat cheesy) playoff shirts:

The Celtics will wear these t-shirts — inspired by the Jae Crowder quote — during playoff warmups. pic.twitter.com/RdA3mQ0HlL

— Ben Rohrbach (@brohrbach) April 7, 2016

Cs adopted Crowder's "we're one superstar" line as a playoff slogan of sorts. Per press release, team will wear shirts with that message.

— Jay King (@ByJayKing) April 7, 2016

The quote comes from Jae Crowder a few months ago, likely in response to a question about whether or not the Celtics would make a substantial move on the February 18th trade deadline. I get what Crowder was saying, it's just that since he made that statement Isaiah's put up 24.5 points a game. Are we really sure that Isaiah Thomas isn't a superstar at this point? How many points do superstars put up per game? Have you seen those cannonball drives down the lane to finish with his right hand recently?

What we do know for sure is that Thomas takes each perceived slight, internalizes it, and uses it to fuel the next burst forward in his career. And when the Celtics are hosting their first playoff game and Isaiah looks over at a Garden full of fans sporting newly minted emerald green "WE ARE ONE SUPERSTAR" shirts, there's a good chance smoke comes out of his ears and the little guy takes his game up yet another level.

Well played, Celtics PR staff. Well played.


Photo Credit Bob DeChiara USA Today Sports