Celtics Notebook: Thomas Believed From Get-Go

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Celtics Notebook: Thomas believed from get-go


Monday, April 13, 2015
By:  Mark Murphy




Isaiah Thomas remains one Celtics win or one Indiana loss away from the first playoff experience of his four-season career.

Credit the legend he was named after, Isiah Thomas, as the first person who told him the Celtics had a chance of turning that dream into reality.

“I honestly did think this could happen,” Thomas said after the C’s 117-78 win over Cleveland yesterday at the Garden. “When I got here Isiah Thomas had shot me a text saying (the Celtics) were a game and a half out of the eighth spot, so the playoffs were realistic. These guys have been fighting each and every day.

“Hopefully we can lock a playoff spot in soon. It’s something I’ve never done before.”

Closer to home, the guard has become a believer in the impassive style of coach Brad Stevens.

“It’s hard to even get a smile out of him. Did he smile today? I don’t know what makes him smile,” Thomas said when asked about the his coach’s placid demeanor.

“He’s just so laid-back. We try to feed off of him as much as possible, but you can’t really read his mind. He’s just all about staying in the moment. That’s one thing coach is very positive with: Coach is your leader, never too high and never too low. Not everyone is like that.”


Proud as Perk

Kendrick Perkins is now two franchises removed from his old Celtics team, but the Cleveland center’s fondness hasn’t faded.

“I’m actually proud of them,” he said. “They battled through a whole lot of adversity, as far as just, you lose (Rajon) Rondo, you don’t know what to expect, but they kept pushing. They’ve got some nice young guys who come in and play hard every night, making big plays. The way Avery Bradley’s been playing this whole season, he’s been playing really well.

“A lot of guys been stepping up for them, and they’ve been playing good basketball. You can tell they are sharing the ball well, they love playing with each other, and have a chance to make the playoffs, so I’m actually proud of them.”


Playoff memories

Evan Turner is in the minority on this Celtics team as a veteran who actually has playoff experience. He’s also sampled the Garden crowd from the wrong side, with the Philadelphia 76ers in the 2012 conference semifinals.

“It was fun, man. We actually had you in Game 1,” Turner said of Philadelphia’s surprise opening to the series against the veteran Celtics. “So I think someone called the referees and said if we won the series, they drop the ratings and everyone loses billions. So we sacrificed that. But it was definitely fun.”

Turner likes to have fun with the media, too.


Just like old times

Rick Weitzman, member of the 1969 Celtics title team and former C’s scout, has a lesser known chapter that Cleveland coach David Blatt brought to light yesterday after the two met briefly in the hallway.

The Framingham native was a backup point guard on the 1977 Boston Shootout team, coached by Weitzman. The coach at Peabody High back then, Weitzman wasn’t exactly scouting future coaching talent at the time.

Weitzman needed a mistake-free point guard who could back up Lynn Classical’s Eddie Thurman and Don Bosco’s Dwan Chandler on that year’s championship Shootout team. But certain qualities about Blatt were hard to ignore.

“At that time he was a high school senior, and I wasn’t looking at that. I was looking for what he could do as a player,” Weitzman said. “But he picked things up extremely quickly, and he didn’t make a whole lot of mistakes when he was on the floor.”

Weitzman’s time as a Celts scout in the 1990s coincided with Blatt’s rise as a coach in Israel and Europe. Blatt became a resource.

“We kept contact over the years, and when I was scouting for the Celtics I used David a lot as my eyes in Europe,” said Weitzman. “He helped us a lot in that respect when he was coaching in Israel. He was a big, big help to me.

“He had tremendous success in Europe, so I knew it was just a matter of time before he got the opportunity in the NBA,” he said. ““I sort of knew he had it in the back of his head to try the NBA at some point. . . . I knew there would be an adjustment for him, but he picked it up pretty quickly.”



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