The Herald’s Mark Murphy has some details on the tight friendship of Isaiah Thomas and Floyd Mayweather:
Their friendship started five years ago, after Thomas attended a Mayweather workout in Las Vegas. Mayweather, a devoted basketball fan, immediately spotted Thomas in the crowd, arranged a meeting through a mutual friend, and took his new friend to a show.
All in the same day.
“We went to a Robin Thicke concert later that night, and since then, we’ve talked almost every day,” Thomas said of a friendship that has redefined the meaning of gift-giving.
Mayweather, No. 1 on Forbes’ list of the wealthiest athletes with $105 million in reported income in 2014, likes to reward his friends.
Even so, Thomas was admittedly stunned on Feb. 7 when a 2015 Bentley Flying Spur sedan — listed at $200,500 — was delivered to his greater Phoenix home.
“He’s given me a few gifts before, nice ones, but that one was unbelievable. It had everyone in the NBA talking,” Thomas said. “Every team we played after that, guys would come up to me (and ask), ‘Where’s the Bentley, does Floyd got something good for me?’ It surprised everybody.”
A Bentley? I’ve known John for more than 20 years and he’s never bought me anything more than a beer.
I was a huge Mayweather fan… until I started watching those HBO 24/7 specials a few years back and realized he’s a clown.
As you might expect, the egomaniacal Floyd thinks he has NBA level hoop skills:
Mayweather has in turn played basketball against Thomas in games of two-on-two and three-on-three. They’ve never gone at each other one-on-one, though the champ naturally thinks he’s good enough to beat NBA talent.
“He’s just a fan of basketball. That’s all he watches, all day. He thinks he can play,” said Thomas, trying not to smile too derisively. “I mean, he can play. We’ve played basketball before, but he thinks he can play professional.
“He talks a lot of mess, as people know. All he does is talk mess. He’s good, but he’s not as good as he thinks he is.”
You may recall the new Big 3 Celtics were big fans of Manny Pacquiao, and vice versa. I’m not sure if this crew shares the same allegiance, but Isaiah sees a potential conflict:
“Floyd is a fan of whatever team I’m on, so you could say he’s a Celtics fan,” Thomas said, before pausing when asked about the Pacquiao factor. “If he hears that Pacquiao is a Celtics fan, I don’t know what he’ll do.”
Celtics fan or not, I’m rooting for Pacquiao to put Mayweather on his back on May 2.
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