It’s not unusual for Isaiah Thomas to exult on the court, but this was different. It seemed as though many of the emotions trapped inside him over the past two weeks came spilling out Friday night.
Midway through the third quarter, as the Boston Celtics were racing away from the Chicago Bulls in Game 6 of their Eastern Conference first-round series, Thomas watched teammate Al Horford slip a screen and run free to the rim. Thomas scooped a lob toward Horford, who threw down an emphatic two-handed slam that put Boston in front by 22.
Inside a hushed United Center, Thomas flexed his arms in a familiar pose — fists clenched and arms by his sides — and then screamed. Only he kept screaming. It felt like he screamed for the entire duration of the TV timeout as teammates rushed to revel with him.
“He wanted it. We all wanted it,” teammate Jae Crowder said after Boston’s series-clinching 105-83 triumph that was Boston’s fourth consecutive victory after falling into an 0-2 hole in the series.
It’s been an unimaginably tough two weeks for Isaiah Thomas. And he’s fought his way through it.
That yell–you can hear some of it here:
AHHHH 🔊🔊🔊 https://t.co/x6N5ZCtsjL
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) April 29, 2017
That was about more than just beating the Bulls. That was about more than adding to a 20 point lead in a close-out game.
That was defiance. Defiance not just because people regularly find reasons to discount what he does on the court, not just because he was picked last, not just because two bottom of the barrel franchises didn’t want him, that was a yell of defiance at the unfairness of life itself.
One of the things that made Bill Russell so competitive, that made him so tough, was his ability to play with concentrated fury. He used to eat supper at Wilt Chamberlain’s house when the Celtics played in Philadelphia. He didn’t hate Wilt. But he hated the hypocrisy he saw around him, and he channeled that. He retired not so much because his body broke down, but because he could no longer summon that rage. There will never be another player like Russell because the environment of casually cruel and pervasive racism that molded him is gone, and good riddance to it.
But you can be sure that if Russ sees that clip, he’ll recognize that fire.
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