ISIAH’S REFLECTION
Thomas sees himself in Celtics’ Irving
Isiah Thomas watched last night’s Celtics-Pistons game from a Garden suite, and when he looked down to the floor, there was, at times, a mirror-like effect.
There is more than a little of the Detroit legend within Celts point guard Kyrie Irving, from the ability of a small man to score at will over and through the league’s taller timber to the skill to make dazzling moves, as if within a phone booth (Google it, kids).
“One hundred percent,” Hall of Famer and two-time NBA champion Thomas said before Irving went off for 31 points in a 108-105 Celtics win. “Just in terms of that, there are ballhandlers and then there are creators. I see him as a creator with the basketball, and things that he can do in small pockets and small spaces, you know, there are no drills for that. It’s imagination, and he’s able to use his imagination and do things with the basketball that really no one else in the league is doing with it.
“Now, everybody’s got a certain handle or whatever, but they don’t have the stuff that he has. I mean, he’s playing jazz. He’s playing different instruments with the basketball, where everybody else is just dribbling. They’ve got good dribble moves, but he’s on another level the way he’s dribbling.”
Thomas, in town to promote the release of his new champagne, Cheurlin, was known as an explosive scorer, when necessary. Irving is of a similar cut. At 21.9 for his career, the Celts guard is averaging nearly three points more than Thomas, but both regularly improved their numbers in the postseason.
And speaking of explosions, Kyrie had 18 games of 30 or more last season, with a high of 47. He came into last night’s game averaging 14 a night, and he spoke after playing well and scoring just three in Saturday’s win against the Pistons in Detroit that his plan for the year is to “be cool.”
“I think that he’s in a posi- tion now where, in this era, you are judged so much by your statistical performance, not necessarily by how much you win,” Thomas said. “And he has to decide with this Celtics team, just like I had to decide with the Pistons team, like, OK, yeah, you can get 30 a night, but it may be best that you get 17 or 18 and then everybody’s scoring.
“And when you’ve got, like, six or seven guys in double figures, that team is hard to beat. You may not get the individual accolades because statistically you won’t have the numbers that somebody else playing on a lesser team that isn’t winning as much has. But that doesn’t mean they’re a better player than you. And that’s a tough spot nowadays in this era, because everything is by the numbers, not necessarily by how many games you win.”
Thomas watched Saturday’s game, and he knows Kyrie Irving is making this about the Celtics rather than Kyrie Irving.
“That’s what great guards used to measure themselves by,” Thomas said. “You can look at Magic (Johnson) or (John) Stockton or myself and say, ‘Those guys only scored 10 points, but their fingerprints are all over the place.’ Like, Magic would have 10 points, and you’d come in the locker room thinking you did a good job on him, but then you go, ‘Oh, oh, oh.’”
But there are also times when those people and Irving can go off.
“He can go get it,” Thomas said. “He can definitely go get it.”
When it was noted that Irving is the one who hit the biggest shot in Cavaliers history to win the 2016 championship, Thomas said, “And LeBron James was smart enough to say, ‘That guy can go get it.’ That’s what made LeBron great, when he would look at a guy like Kyrie and say, ‘OK, this guy’s a better one-on-one player than me.’ Boom.”
As it did with Thomas on the Pistons, that quality will put the Celtics in good position as Irving tries to lead them to an 18th title for the franchise and an Isiah matching second for himself.