Boston Celtics guard Isaiah Thomas (4) stands on the court during the game against the Charlotte Hornets at the Spectrum Center.
Standing only at 5’9”, Isaiah Thomas is shorter than the average American male but has caught the NBA by storm this season, averaging a league-record 9.89 points in the fourth quarter, earning him the nickname “The King in the Fourth.”
While it seems like he’s untouchable in the final frame, Thomas had a very humble beginning, having been doubted his whole career thanks to his small stature. But the guy who came into the league without any hype turned himself into a two-time All-Star and briefly entered the MVP discussion, helping guide the Celtics to their best season since 2010-11. So how much do you really know about the pint-sized point guard? Here are 15 things you may not know about Isaiah Thomas.
He was named after Detroit Pistons Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas.
His dad was a Lakers fan and lost a bet to his friend when the Pistons beat the Lakers in 1989 NBA Finals. He had to name his son after Isiah Thomas. But his mom wanted it spelled the biblical way.
Isiah Thomas is a mentor.
The younger Thomas does have a close relationship with his namesake. The current NBATV analyst is a mentor, and the two of them talk every week.
He was a huge Kobe Bryant fan growing up.
Despite growing up in Sonics country, Thomas was a Lakers fan because of his father, and his all-time favorite basketball player is Kobe Bryant. He actually played against Bryant his first game, and Kobe backed him down three times in a row.
He was the last selection in the 2011 NBA Draft.
Thomas was selected 60th overall by the Kings in the 2011 draft, well after first-round selections like Kyrie Irving (No. 1), Kemba Walker (No. 9), Klay Thompson (No. 11), Kawhi Leonard (No. 15), and Jimmy Butler (No. 30). Out of the 59 players taken ahead of him in the draft, only Thompson has scored more points.
He's the shortest player in NBA history to record a triple-double.
Back when he was playing for the Kings, Thomas had 24 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists in an overtime win over the Wizards to become the shortest player to record a triple-double.
He asked Nate Robinson's permission to wear No. 2 in school.
Thomas stayed close to home, playing his college ball at Washington where another diminutive point guard played before making his way to the NBA. When Thomas arrived on campus in Seattle, he actually asked Nate Robinson permission to wear No. 2.
“Isaiah and I talked about what number he was going to wear and he wanted No. 2, and I told him, ‘I know you’re going to represent that number, so you have my permission,’” Robinson told the Seattle Times back in 2008.
Jason Terry's the reason he wears a headband.
Thomas is always wearing a headband on the court. He says he sports it to pay homage to longtime friend and Seattle native Jason Terry. Now in his 18th season in the NBA, Terry wears a headband because of former Sonics player Slick Watts, who balled for Seattle back in the '70s.
He didn't want to go to Boston.
Thomas didn’t want to play for the Celtics when they acquired him from the Suns in 2015. But after talking to his mentor, he realized Boston was a game and a half out of the eighth spot in the Eastern Conference and he had a chance at making the playoffs for the first time in his career.
Isiah sent him a text saying, “This is the best thing that could happen to you. You’re with a real organization now. And the fans will love you.”
"When I got traded, I didn’t want to go because even though the Phoenix thing didn’t work out, we were seventh or eighth in the West," Thomas told The Undefeated. "We were fighting for a playoff spot. Boston had traded [Rajon] Rondo, they traded Jeff Green, they traded so many players. It was rebuilding time. So when I got traded there, ‘Damn, I got to go to another team that’s rebuilding at the end of their conference.’ Then when I checked, they were a game out of the playoffs."
He got in trouble trying to ball in grade school.
In the fourth grade, his teacher had to call his father because he refused to come inside after recess. Isaiah told him he could only improve his game against sixth graders.
He tried to make himself taller.
He used to hang from a chin-up bar at home because he believed that it would stretch his body out. He also would always ask his doctors to predict how tall he would be and what chance he had of growing taller.
He played AAU ball with Kevin Love.
Before making it to the league, Kevin Love and Thomas grew up playing on the same AAU team.
“Kevin and his dad Stan, they would come pick me up and I would stay the weekend at his house so I could play on that AAU team," Thomas told The Vertical Podcast. "It’s something that me and Kevin, we’ll talk about. It’s crazy that we’re both in the NBA and he is at the level he’s at, and I’m doing pretty well. To be able to say that I used to go to his house every other weekend and stay the night, and his parents used to cook dinner, and all that type of thing, it’s crazy to see that.”
Video games are part of his pregame routine.
Before every home game, Thomas goes to the same breakfast spot to enjoy his regular meal then goes home to relax and plays 2K. He faces the actual team he is playing later.
He won a dunk contest in college.
In his sophomore season at Washington, the point guard won the Huskies’ Midnight Madness dunk contest when he leaped over a 6’9” teammate.
During the summer, he balls with Seattle's best.
There is a squad of NBA players who hail from Seattle that work out and play five-on-five together during the offseason. The group consists of Jason Terry, Jamal Crawford, Brandon Roy, Aaron Brooks, and Zach LaVine.
He's barely getting paid (by NBA standards).
The 2016-2017 All-Star is only making $6,587,132 this season while averaging 29.1 points per game. Next season he’ll be making $6,261,395. That’s less than what some bench players are currently making, and Thomas says there will be no discounts when he's a free agent.
“They better bring out the Brinks truck,” Thomas told CSN NE last summer. “They’re paying everybody else. I gotta get something.”