Seattle natives Isaiah Thomas, right, connects with Jamal Crawford, left, and Nate Robinson at the Ninth Annual ZekeEnd Tournament in Tacoma, Washington. (Photo courtesy of Dhan Calo/dc7visuals)
TACOMA – NBA free agency has been underway for more than two months, and many players are still searching for their next home.
Among them, only one has finished in the top five in MVP voting, top three in points per game in a season, earned All-NBA Second Team honors and is a two-time All-Star: former Phoenix Suns guard Isaiah Thomas.
Since signing a one-year deal with the Wizards in the 2019 offseason, Thomas has not secured a contract before the start of the regular season. Over the past four seasons, he has played just 31 games, with the 2022-2023 season being a complete absence.
For someone who, as Boston Celtics guard Payton Pritchard put it, “pretty much reached the pinnacle of being at the best,” Thomas, at 35 years old, is not ready to ride off into the sunset just yet.
“I just enjoy the process, but I know what I’m fighting against,” Thomas said in August during a lull at his Ninth Annual ZekeEnd Tournament in Tacoma, Washington, where he was joined by Pritchard, Orlando Magic forward Paolo Banchero, Dallas Mavericks guard Klay Thompson and other NBA luminaries.
Despite battling injuries and time away from the league, Isaiah Thomas remains focused on his dream of playing in the NBA again. (Photo courtesy of Dhan Calo/dc7visuals)
“I understand it, but I’ve had that same fight my whole life. This is just normal to me. It’s just another stage I have to get by,” Thomas said. “I really want to just play two or three more years and then focus on my kids. That’s the ultimate goal and we’re just going to keep fighting until the end.”
Knowing the harsh realities of the business firsthand, Thomas was asked why he continues to compete for an NBA contract, especially when the league seems to push out veterans like him.
“Basketball has been my life,” Thomas said. “I’ve focused on one thing my whole life.
“Most don’t really focus on one single thing that long. I’ve loved the game of basketball, and it’s done wonders for my life. I’ve been across the world, I made tons of money around basketball. I just love it. I love everything about the game.
“I love the process. I love the good, the bad. I’m still at an age where I can still play at a high level. I always say that I have the same feeling going to the gym now that I did when I was a kid. I know when that goes away, it’s time to just try to find something else.”
The Sacramento Kings, the organization that drafted him in 2011 with the 60th and final pick, traded for the draft rights of point guard and 10th overall pick Jimmer Fredette that same night.
When a sign-and-trade sent him to Phoenix on a four-year contract for his first stint with the Suns in 2014, Eric Bledsoe and Goran Dragic both started as point guards ahead of Thomas, and he was traded at the deadline that same season.
Upon arriving in Boston, he initially came off the bench but was traded for former Cleveland Cavaliers guard Kyrie Irving during the offseason after leading the Celtics to the 2017 Eastern Conference Finals and averaging 28.9 points per game, giving his all during a contract year.
Despite being far from 100% after returning early from a hip injury suffered on March 15, 2017, against the Minnesota Timberwolves – an injury that was aggravated and re-aggravated throughout his final year and playoff run in Boston – unrealistic expectations to immediately fit alongside former Cavaliers star LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Derrick Rose and Kevin Love in 2018 led to his trade after just 15 games.
These factors, combined with inconsistent playing time and stints with eight different franchises – including a recent six-game run with the Suns in 2024 – raise more questions as to why, as he puts it, “the marathon continues.”
On May 7, 2020, he decided to undergo resurfacing surgery on his right hip to address the bone-on-bone issue he had been dealing with for three years.
Banchero recalled at ZekeEnd, after his team’s first game – with Thomas and the San Antonio Spurs’ Malachi Flynn as teammates – working out and playing pickup games with Thomas after the resurfacing procedure in May of 2020, witnessing firsthand the effort he put into returning to the league and how determined Thomas was to get his legs back.
“What he did is one of the hardest things to do in sports in the world in general,” Banchero said. “When you experience success like that, it’s so easy to just once it’s gone or something happens, it’s easy to just give up and be okay with what you already did. To be at the top and then be at the bottom and then be out of the league and then get a surgery, then fight your way all the way back. It’s unheard of, especially at his height.
Isaiah Thomas, a two-time All-Star, continues to train and compete in hopes of securing an NBA contract for the 2024-25 season. (Photo courtesy of Dhan Calo/dc7visuals)
“He continues to defy every odd.”
That’s it.
That’s the reason Thomas continues: all he knows is basketball and how to defy the odds.
“I believe in myself more than anybody would,” Thomas said. “I just feel like why not keep going and why not show the world what perseverance looks like, what fighting through adversity looks like. Then being able to do it with a smile on your face.”
Flynn added, “He doesn’t give up. He’s going to find a way to make it happen whether they tell him yes or no. Even if they tell him no 100 times, he’s going to be stubborn. He’s going to try to find a way to do it and try to get to where he wants because he doesn’t know any different.”
Besides feeling like he still has a lot left in the tank, at this point in his career Thomas said he is willing to continue to embrace the veteran role.
It’s a role that most teams need, but as the league has gotten younger, many teams are less inclined to value maturity and age, though the reason remains unclear.
“The vets teach the way,” Thomas said. “The vets know their experiences and been through what the younger guys are about to go through. It’s very important for NBA teams to have vets at the end of the bench to teach guys how to become a professional, to teach guys what it takes to be really good for a long time and have a long career.”