Thomas feeling at home as a Celtic in Boston

http://www.pressherald.com/2015/10/27/thomas-feeling-at-home-as-a-celtic-in-boston/




Thomas feeling at home as a Celtic in Boston

Guard Isaiah Thomas loves playing in a big city and hopes to provide its fans with a winner.


BY MARK MURPHY

BOSTON HERALD



BOSTON — Like most card shows, the personalities for this one had been randomly dealt, with Bill Walton and Dan Marino in the same room.

Isaiah Thomas saw another athlete not much taller than himself – Patriots cornerback Malcolm Butler – but only knew him as, “the guy who got the interception against the Seahawks.”



Guard Isaiah Thomas has immersed himself in the city of Boston, buying a condo roughly a quarter-mile from the TD Garden. The Associated Press
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No mistaking the other little man in the room, though.

The Celtics guard introduced himself to Nate Archibald, said it was an honor, and Tiny held up his hand.

“You don’t have to introduce yourself, I know who you are,” he said.

Thinking back now, Thomas is still a little floored.

“That hit me. ‘Dang, you know who I am?’ ” he said.

Silly question. Archibald returned to New York following his Hall of Fame career, and rarely goes anywhere other than Madison Square Garden to watch a game. But his heart resides in a space now paved over by a parking lot – the old Boston Garden.

Cable television is wonderful, for that is how Larry Bird’s first point guard keeps up with his Celtics. The new Garden is cold and impersonal, but Archibald knows the crowd hasn’t changed.

He understands how Celtics fans embrace their players – especially undersized guards who prove time and again that size doesn’t have to matter in a big man’s world.

Archibald didn’t waste time with Thomas.

“He just said to continue being myself, to do what I’m doing, and if I win here, there’s no other feeling like winning in Boston,” Thomas said of Archibald’s advice.

His former coach at the University of Washington, Lorenzo Romar, only knew the Garden crowd from an opponent’s perspective as a member of the Warriors, Bucks and Pistons.

Thomas was visiting his alma mater when Romar lit up.

“Coach Romar was like, ‘You’re a Boston Celtic? Not everybody can say that,’ ” said Thomas. “And when people say things like that it really hits me.”


Right at home in the Hub

Though he has played in Sacramento and Phoenix, Thomas considers Boston his first “big city.”

Most teammates live in the western suburbs for easy access to the team’s Waltham practice facility. But Thomas considers that a wasted opportunity. He recently purchased a condo on the Boston/Cambridge line, in a high rise development on the other side of a railroad bridge from the Museum of Science.

The most photographed parts of the city are at his feet – Charlestown and the Bunker Hill Monument, the Garden, Beacon Hill with its golden-domed summit, and beyond the museum, the grand start of the Charles River.

“I’ve never really been in a big city. This is my first, so I want to experience what a big city is like,” he said. “That means being in the middle of everything, where I can interact with people. When family comes to town, then they can see everything, not like being in Waltham or those small suburbs.”

Thomas took the eldest of his two sons, 5-year-old James, on a Duck Boat ride for his birthday last month. They boarded in front of the museum, and went through the entire ride without acknowledgement from the other passengers.

Such is the world of a 5-foot-9 basketball player. On the floor, no one gets more cheers. But off of it?

“I blend in with people,” he said with a smile. “The people on that Duck Boat might have known me, but they didn’t say nothing. It was all friendly. But the more and more I’m here, it’s harder to go places. Sacramento is a great city, also Phoenix, but the love I get in Boston after only five months is unbelievable.”

Thomas recently took his family into Somerville for breakfast at the Ball Square Cafe, and barely had time to eat with all the autograph requests. A walk down Newbury Street started a conga line. Thomas’ thoughts went back to last April, and Game 4 of the Celtics’ four-game sweep at the hands of Cleveland.

“We’re walking to the locker room, and the crowd gave us a standing ovation,” he said. “I’ve never seen nothing like that. That hit me – ‘Man, I’m a Boston Celtic.’

“I was a little boy who went to Sonics games, and when I got to touch an NBA player’s hand that was a different feeling. Ray Allen, Gary Payton, Shawn Kemp, Vin Baker. My first game was Minnesota against the Sonics in 1997. I got there real early and got to see Stephon Marbury shoot, Kevin Garnett shoot. Those are memories that last forever. Me being an NBA player now, I can see that in our fans.”

Thomas has played his entire NBA career on the attack, as much against his doubters as anyone in uniform. Along the way he’s gathered arenas full of fans, but none who made him want to reciprocate the spirit as much as those in the building roughly a quarter-mile away from his condo.

He’s heard the now-fabled story of Doc Rivers and the Duck Boat ride, and how the former Celtics coach took Garnett, Allen and Paul Pierce on a cruise down the Charles in 2007.

“Yeah, he told them the next time they’d be on there was to celebrate a championship,” said Thomas, who can only dream his next Duck Boat ride has the same significance.

He also knows that the Red Sox, Patriots and Bruins have all made that trip since 2001. Boston is as spoiled and critical as it is loyal.

“It is spoiled, but you’d rather have that than the other way around, with people expecting you to win,” Thomas said. “That’s better as a player – when you’re expected to win.”



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