Isaiah Thomas Will Rightfully Be Forever Cemented As A Boston Sports Legend After Being Selected For The City's "Basketball Legacy Award"

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Former #Celtics All-Star Isaiah Thomas @isaiahthomasis is one of six Boston-area athletes being honored this year at The Tradition on Nov. 18 at TD Garden. Thomas will be presented by former teammate Evan Turner. Tim Thomas (Bruins), Gabby Thomas (Track & Field), Fred Lynn (Red Sox), Vince Wilfork (Patriots) and Keegan Bradley (Golf) will also be honored.

LET'S FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

What wonderful news to see come across my timeline this morning. Now understandably, I imagine there's a decent chunk of people who may be asking, "what the hell is The Tradition and why does this matter?" which is fair. For those who don't know, they describe The Tradition on their website as 

The annual celebration of sports in Boston and a fundraising gala unlike any other. Since 2002, The Sports Museum has been privileged to honor a host of sports legends at the event, including Bill Russell, Ted Williams, David Ortiz, Martina Navratilova, Jack Nicklaus, Lawyer Milloy, Pedro Martinez, Red Auerbach, Larry Bird, Ray Bourque, Doug Flutie, Cam Neely, Aly Raisman, John Hannah, Nancy Kerrigan, Chante Bonds, Shaquille O’Neal, and many more

Basically, it's getting the nod by The Sports Museum (museum at TD Garden) as a Boston area athlete who will then be cemented in history as a Boston legend forever.

Anyone who watched the Celtics from 2014-15 to Isaiah's final season in 2016-17 will tell you that he pretty much is the poster child for an award like this from the basketball side of things. 

I am not being hyperbolic when I say, much of what we've watched over the last 10 years when it comes to the Boston Celtics, is in many ways, a result of the Isaiah Thomas Era. He changed everything the second Danny Ainge traded for him in February of 2015. After the 2014 season, which saw the Celtics win 25 games, the next season saw the team once again struggling to win, standing at around a 20-32 record around the trade deadline. Isaiah came aboard, and everything changed. They finished that season 40-42 and made the playoffs. The way Isaiah was able to take over and carry the team, it changed everything about their timeline. They instantly went from rebuilding/lottery direction, to contention. From that trade in the 2014-15 season, outside of the shortened Covid year, the Celts would go on to never win fewer than 48 games. In Isaiah's 2nd full season in Boston, they made the Conference Finals and the rest is history.

The impact is undeniable. In the 1.5 years before Isaiah, the Celtics were 45-88. In the 2.5 years he led the team? They were 68-45 with a deep playoff run.

Watching Isaiah at his peak in the 2016-17 season was one of the most magical and dominant offensive seasons in Celtics history. That is fact, not opinion. From the production to the moments he provided, there truly was nothing like it

29 points a game, 2nd Team All NBA, Top 5 in MVP voting, and backpacking the Celts to 53 wins, their highest win total since the Big 3 Era won 56 in 2010-11. We saw him drop 53 in a playoff game to beat the Wizards, we saw him set Celtics record after Celtics record during the year. It was the very definition of a magical season.

You could make the case that those 2.5 years of the Isaiah Era are what really jump-started the entire Celts rebuild/contending process and what put the Celtics on the map as an actual destination. It was Isaiah who helped land Al Horford in free agency, a player who was the biggest and best free agent the Celtics ever signed in my 30 years on the planet. My entire life, the Celtics never, ever signed big free agents. Ever. They were never looked at as a real destination. If we wanted stars, we had to draft them.

But the Isaiah Celtics? They proved to be just that. As we would come to learn, Al Horford would be a pretty great/important Celtic. At the time of Gordon Hayward's signing, he thought he was going to be playing with Isaiah Thomas before Danny Ainge eventually traded him later that summer. Hayward talked about how excited he was and how that impacted his decision (as well as Brad being there), which wasn't a surprise. Isaiah was dominant, going toe to toe with the best point guards in the league on a nightly basis.

And while the ending to his tenure was brutal and he's not exactly in a position to get his number retired, I love this decision by The Sports Museum to honor a player who truly was a Celtics and Boston area legend while he was there. Few players to come into the Celtics organization embrace not only what it means to be a Celtic, but also what it means to play in the city of Boston more than Isaiah did during his tenure. That's partially what made his connection to the fanbase and the city so strong. He was as ideal a Celtic in every aspect as you could possibly want. 

So the fact that for the rest of time, Isaiah will have his own place next to the other true Boston sports legends is not only awesome, it's well deserved.