Celtics' Isaiah Thomas Relives 'Cold-Blooded' Buzzer-Beater (Video)

Isaiah Thomas was hitting big-time shots long before he first pulled on a Boston Celtics jersey.

As part of The Players’ Tribune’s “Best Play I Ever Made” series, the Celtics point guard detailed his — a step-back, buzzer-beating jumper that gave his Washington Huskies a 77-75 overtime win over Arizona in the 2011 Pac-10 Championship Game.

“Arizona had just hit a 3-pointer to tie the game at 75 with 19 seconds left,” Thomas wrote. “When I took the inbounds pass, I waved Coach (Lorenzo) Romar off and walked the ball up the court slowly — I wanted that clock to tick down. I held up four fingers and waved everyone down to the baseline. We called it ‘four flat.’ It was our isolation play, to get me one-on-one with the defender.”

Thomas’ confidence paid off. He was able to gain enough separation from Arizona’s Lamont Jones to get off a shot, which found the bottom of the basket just as time expired.

Isaiah Thomas

“It was perfect,” Thomas wrote. “Just as it hit the net, the clock hit zero and the backboard lit up as if to say, ‘Yeah, dude just hit that.’ I couldn’t have timed it more perfectly.”

Thomas says he received texts from NBA stars past and present after the game — Isiah Thomas, Jason Terry, Damon Stoudamire, Gary Payton, Jamal Crawford — but more memorable than the shot itself might have been CBS Sports broadcaster Gus Johnson’s call of the play.

Cold. Blooded.

“People still tweet the video at me,” Thomas wrote. “Every time, I watch it over and over. Aside from getting drafted, it was the biggest moment of my basketball life.”