Isaiah Thomas calls All-NBA final season with Celtics "Worst Year Of My Life"

Isaiah Thomas led the Celtics to a 1st place finish in the 2016-17 NBA season, becoming the "King in the Fourth" and finishing Top 5 in MVP voting. It was quite the season for IT4. Thomas was traded in the summer though as Danny Ainge sought to upgrade to Kyrie Irving.

Things didn't go very well for Kyrie Irving and his Celtics tenure or Isaiah after that. For the past several years we've heard stories from Isaiah and some of his NBA friends that he was back to his old self and according to a recent interview with former NBA players Quentin Richardson and Darius Miles Thomas once again reiterates he's been back to the player he was since 2020, but no NBA team has been willing to invest in Thomas since then either financially or with playing time (Thomas has played in only 31 games the past four NBA seasons).

"I'm upset because I put my career on the line for something you could've just broke down to me and told me.

It took me three years to get back to who I am and really figure out what was going on, but it was a tough situation. It was a learning experience for myself. I got real love for Boston and everybody in that organization. It was definitely the wrong way to go about things. I'm not blaming Boston, I'm not blaming those guys. People know what happened, it's documented. It was just a messed up situation and it happened to be with me."

Thomas states that he's not mad that he got traded (IT has previously stated Irving is an NBA Top 20 All-Time player), but in the lack of communication for a franchise player.

"I understand the business of the game. I wasn't fighting that like, 'Oh, I got traded, I'm mad at that.' It was how it happened. I'm a franchise guy at that point so as you guys know, it should've been communicated this is what possibly can happen. I'm the franchise for the Boston Celtics at that point. But you live and you learn. You move past it. I'm healthy again, I'm cool, I got no pain no more. But I went through real life (expletive) with my sister, getting traded, getting hurt. I always say that was the best year of my career and the worst year of my life -- at the same time. Let that sink in."

While Celtics fans might prefer Thomas to remember his NBA apex more fondly, one can understand why he might call it the worst year of his life. Thomas lost his sister in a car accident, suffered an injury that cost him his biggest pay day, and was traded from a system that was perfect for his game. One can see how that would cast a shadow on that magical Celtics season.