Isaiah Thomas rapidly has risen from fan favorite to NBA All-Star to Face of the Boston Celtics. In other words, he’s finally getting some of the respect a player as good as he is deserves.
But that doesn’t mean there aren’t still moments that can take his breath away. Saturday morning was one of those.
The 5-foot-9 Celtics point guard knew Nike was planning to surprise him with an ad campaign, and when signs started showing up in North Station below TD Garden, he even asked his wife to go take a picture during Wednesday’s game against the Chicago Bulls, per ESPN.
But then the signs became larger and more prominent, so IT just had to go check it out himself. When he got to Boston’s South Station in the early hours of Saturday morning, though, the doors were locked. He waited around outside until someone exited the building, and what he found inside took a moment to soak in.
“When I went last night, me and my wife, we had a moment,” Thomas told ESPN’s Chris Forsberg. It’s easy to see why.
“That was like a dream. I can’t even explain it,” Thomas told ESPN. “The workers said they’ve been doing it for the last four or five days and they’ve still got way more to do. I was taking pictures and (security) was telling me that it was against the rules to take pictures in the train station, but I kept telling them, ‘I know you got to do your job, but I’m taking these pictures and these videos. I’m sorry.'”
And who could blame him? Thomas was selected 60th overall in the 2011 NBA Draft — the last pick. He was an afterthought in Sacramento before signing with the Phoenix Suns and being traded to the Celtics a few short months later.
“I tried to FaceTime my mom and dad,” he explained. “It was late, but I tried. They didn’t answer. The people who were putting up the signs, they wanted to take pictures. They said, ‘We never get to take pictures of the people we put up.’ It was a great moment. God has blessed me in ways that I never thought would happen.
“It’s crazy. I just smile because I don’t even know how to describe it.”
Thumbnail photo via Jeremy Brevard/USA TODAY Sports Images
