Allen retirement hits home for Thomas
CELTICS NOTEBOOK
Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge said yesterday the team would not have won the 2007-08 NBA championship without Ray Allen — words Miami Heat president Pat Riley probably could have said about his team’s 2012-13 title.
Those are the two championships the former Celtics guard will retire with next to his name, after announcing his decision yesterday in the Player’s Tribune. But before he became the NBA’s career 3-point leader, and after he became a film star as Jesus Shuttlesworth in Spike Lee’s “He Got Game,” Allen was a star languishing on a bad team in Seattle.
There was a young SuperSonics fan named Isaiah Thomas watching his every shot. Yesterday, Thomas thought back to those times.
“That’s big. I used to go to one or two games a year,” Thomas said. “My dad used to take me. So I’d seen Ray when he had hair, I’d seen him when he was wearing all the nice (Air Jordan sneakers) and everything. Jesus Shuttlesworth. It’s self-explanatory. He’s a Hall of Famer, one of the best shooters ever, and it was great for me to see him at a young age and see how talented he really was.”
Idol worship
The Celtics get another crack at Dwyane Wade and the Chicago Bulls tonight at the Garden. Though Thomas appreciated Terry Rozier’s recent homage to Wade, the second-year player’s childhood idol, he thought his teammate went overboard with the praise.
“He should’ve waited until after the season to say how starstruck he was. But he probably was. I think that was one of his favorite players ever,” Thomas said. “So if you go up against him and really have real minutes, and he’s guarding you, and you’re guarding him, it can be surreal because I’ve been in that position before. But you’ve got to be a killer, man, because I always think if it’s the other way around, they wouldn’t be looking at you like that. They’d be trying to take your position.”
Thomas has his own story of adulation, though, involving now-retired Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant.
“It was the first game of the season, Sacramento Kings vs. the Lakers,” Thomas said. “He scored on me three times, and I’m just running back smiling. Like, that was the first time I ever smiled when somebody scored on me, but it was Kobe Bryant. That was my favorite player of all time. . . . The next game, it was like man, forget Kobe because he didn’t even say hi to me or anyhing. So I wasn’t even looking at him as my favorite player anymore. But I’m different, so (Rozier) might still like D-Wade.”
Bradley’s sore
Though Avery Bradley erupted with a career-high 31 points Saturday in Charlotte, the effort against the Hornets didn’t come at perfect health. Bradley missed yesterday’s practice to have his sore right shoulder examined by team physician Brian McKeon, and is thus questionable for tonight.
Coach Brad Stevens said Bradley has been suffering from shoulder soreness since training camp opened.
“He told me he is very sore today,” Stevens said. “He’s been getting extra treatment on it and everything else, but for whatever reason, it was a little more sore today.” . . .
Perhaps as an indication of Bradley missing time, Marcus Smart practiced with the first unit the past two days. Smart, who missed the first three games of the regular season with a left ankle sprain, will make his season debut against the Bulls. . . .
Al Horford, suffering from an illness, left practice early. Judging from the way Gerald Green sniffled his way through a post-practice media session, something bad might be making its way through the team.