Thomas speaks at sister’s funeral
Isaiah Thomas, accompanied by Celtics assistant coach Jerome Allen, returned to Boston from Tacoma, Wash., in the wee hours yesterday after attending the funeral of Chyna Thomas, the point guard’s sister who died in an April 15 car crash.
Thomas spoke at the funeral, recounting how the last 15 days have been the most difficult of his life. He also said that he briefly felt the urge to “give up,” but quickly realized stepping away from the game and his team wasn’t an option. He has dedicated his life and career to Chyna’s memory.
Yesterday, that meant scoring 31 of his game-high 33 points over the first three quarters of the C’s 123-111 win against the Washington Wizards in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.
“When I found out the news, I wanted to give up and quit. And never in my life have I ever thought about quitting,” Thomas, wearing sunglasses and reading from his phone, said to the congregation. “I realized quitting isn’t an option. That’s the easy way out. I will keep going for my sister, as I know she wouldn’t want me to stop. I love you Chyna and I miss you so much. And everything I do for the rest of my life will be for you. I love you girl.”
By yesterday morning, coach Brad Stevens was once again marveling at Thomas’ ability to perform and prepare despite his personal tragedy.
“I talked to him for a few minutes. I just talked to him about the clip I saw of him speaking yesterday at the funeral,” Stevens said before Game 1. “We were texting (Saturday) and obviously I’ve had a lot of talks with him over the last two weeks. My discussion with him wasn’t about basketball, obviously. It was just about how hard it is to speak at a funeral. He’s been through a lot. And he just continues to amaze us all when he steps on that court with his resolve and his ability to just kind of be, as he’s called it, his sanctuary. He’ll continue to have really tough days; I don’t think that’s going to stop.”
For all of the work Stevens and his staff have put into sleep science and rest, there’s no reconciling Thomas’ schedule — he’s now made two trips out to Tacoma since the start of the playoffs — to normal sleep patterns.
“In the big picture of things obviously this is secondary. What he did you have to do,” said Stevens. “And like I said before, if he decided he couldn’t come back and play, then that’s — you know, I would think that most of us would struggle to play. That said, I think that what you’re studying those things for are long-term effects. And so a whole year of treating your body right and a whole year of doing things the way that you want to do them. You know, there are days where you don’t sleep as well. There are days where life happens and you just kind of deal on the court the best that you can. So I think that the emotional side of things is probably more challenging than the physiological side of things.”
Big spark
Stevens saw something in a regular-season game video that led to his insertion of Jaylen Brown for the foul-hindered Terry Rozier with 6:09 left yesterday. The rookie forward, who hadn’t played meaningful minutes since Game 1 of the Chicago series, responded by stacking his stat line with five points, including a 3-pointer, two rebounds and a huge assist on arguably the biggest shot of the game — Jae Crowder’s 3-point with 4:45 left.
“( Bojan) Bogdanovic had hit a couple of shots, and I thought Jaylen did a good job on Bogdanovic in one of our games earlier this year while I was watching film,” Stevens said. “So I wanted to give him a shot. I trust all of our guys to be ready when called on, and I thought Jaylen not only did a good job by getting in there defensively and rebounding, but he made (a 3-pointer) and made a nice drive and kick to Jae as well.”
Out with the old way
As much as the dislike between these teams has entertained the masses, Wizards coach Scott Brooks said the NBA isn’t what it was during a more volatile era.
“Both teams are talented. Both teams play hard. It’s not going to be ’90s basketball,” Brooks said. “Those days are done. They’re not coming back and thank goodness they’re not because it’s a great game to watch. It’s free-flowing and it’s pleasant on the eye. And it’s not football. We’re all well aware of that. We can’t afford to focus on the physicality of the series, you just have to focus on playing basketball. One of the things I love about both teams is they play hard. You can’t discount that in the league, the teams that play hard. I think that’s a great trait to have. You can have a talented team that doesn’t play hard and you’re going to have a frustrated coach.”