Draymond Green and Isaiah Thomas, the NBA's unlikely All-Stars
Warriors forward Draymond Green and Celtics guard Isaiah Thomas don't know each other well, but they're connected based on their stories.
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7 min read
TORONTO -- Draymond Green and Isaiah Thomas are the happiest All-Stars in Toronto, and of course they admire each other. Green, a 6-foot-7 Golden State Warriors forward, has gone from a reserve tweener to the catalyst of a championship team. Thomas, a 5-foot-9 Boston Celtics guard, has beaten the odds every step of the way to become the shortest All-Star in NBA history along with Calvin Murphy.
“Obviously I’m an undersized guy for my position,” Green said. “[Thomas] is undersized for the NBA. Period. What he’s able to do, he hasn’t done that for one year, he hasn’t done that for two years, he’s done that for three or four years, five years of putting up the numbers that he’s putting up. And now he’s doing it and carrying a playoff team. Obviously I think he got what he deserved to be an All-Star. When you’re talking [about] a guy who’s 5-9 on a good day, to be able to do what he’s doing, that’s special. And I know where that comes from.
“He’s very skilled, but in order to be that small and do what he’s doing, you gotta have a lot of heart,” Green continued. “And I respect heart.”
Thomas said the two of them don’t even really know each other. There’s a bond, though, between second-round picks and “guys that have just been counted out,” he said. Thomas was taken No. 60 overall in the 2011 draft, and Green went No. 35 a year later.
“He’s a guy that nobody thought would be what he is today,” Thomas said. “And I think the same thing happened with me. So, we gotta stick together. Because nobody believed in us but ourselves, and that says a lot.”
People never let Green forget draft night. “It was tough sitting there,” he said, though that hardly compared with Thomas waiting until the very last pick. Green always tells people, though, that going in the first round didn’t fit his story. This is a guy who answered a question on Friday about being the runner-up for Michigan’s Mr. Basketball award in 2008. Naturally, he said he used it as motivation.
Green averaged 2.9 points in 13.4 minutes as a rookie, and it wasn’t until last season that he established himself as more than a role player. When Steve Kerr took the Warriors’ coaching job in the summer of 2014, he originally planned to give Green 10 to 12 minutes in the rotation, according to Grantland. An injury to David Lee changed everything, and suddenly Green was a candidate for Most Improved Player and Defensive Player of the Year. He was the runner-up for both, but the accolades have kept accumulating since Golden State won the title. When his mother, Mary Babers-Green, told him on television that he’d made the All-Star team, it was one of the rare times he was at a loss for words.
“I believed I could do it,” Green said, pointing to a conversation with Nike rep Adrian Stelly last year. “I said, ‘Stells, I’ma be an All-Star in this league.’ He was like, ‘Do it.’ For this to come true, it’s one of those things you say and you want to happen, [but] have no clue how that’s going to ever happen.”
Green said this recognition definitely validates his hard work. Thomas, though, was less sure that the perception of him has fully changed. Even though he’s leading the Eastern Conference’s third-best team, averaging 21.5 points and 6.6 assists, he’s not far removed enough from people saying he’s destined to be a bench scorer simply because of his height.
“I hope,” Thomas said. “But I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s not. That’s just how my life and career has been.”
Thomas was the Sacramento Kings’ best point guard for three seasons, but was shuffled in and out of the starting lineup in favor of guys who were bigger in name or stature. Tyreke Evans, Aaron Brooks, Greivis Vasquez and Jimmer Fredette each had a chance to play in front of him, and the Kings chose to sign Darren Collison in free agency in 2014, letting Thomas go to the Phoenix Suns for four years and $27 million. That seemed like a bargain at the time and comically cheap now, though Thomas had to deal with an untenable three-point-guard logjam in Phoenix before being traded to the Celtics at last year’s trade deadline.
Even back at the University of Washington, Thomas believed he’d get to this point. Only in Boston, though, has he found the right situation. From Day 1, Thomas said, coach Brad Stevens gave him freedom and trust. His teammates told him they’d adjust to him, not the other way around.
“The opportunity was there for me to be the Isaiah Thomas that I know how to be,” he said. “I think that’s just the biggest thing. They love me for what I do and what I bring to the table.”
Thomas’ former teams are both in disarray. Life is a lot simpler now that he doesn’t have to worry about his role or his coach changing. He got a taste of the postseason last year, and now he wants his team to “make some noise” when it gets back there.
“That’s a feeling that I want to have for the rest of my career,” Thomas said. “Legends, stars are born in the playoffs. And when you’re winning, it’s just a whole different atmosphere. With me winning, I became an All-Star and people are starting to show me that respect. But before that, it was like, ‘He’s just a guy that can score a lot of points on a losing team.’ I’m glad that’s kind of, slowly, going away.”
Every part of this weekend is a dream come true for both of them, from Green laughing at Gregg Popovich’s sarcastic jokes to Thomas taking compliments and congratulations from LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony. Thomas and Green’s peers respect how difficult it is for a 5-9 guy to finish in traffic and a 6-7 guy to defend 7-footers.
“He’s changing the game at the 4 position in basketball,” Toronto Raptors guard DeMar DeRozan said of Green. DeRozan also called Thomas an inspiration for any player drafted late in the second round.
When Hall of Famer Nate “Tiny” Archibald saw Green on media day, he had to stop him and ask for a picture. Archibald, a former Celtic himself, also gave Thomas a pep talk in October in New York.
“People are always talking about, well, [Thomas] is small,” Archibald said. “I don’t see too many guys stopping him. So the challenge is, I could guard you but you can’t guard me. And whenever I come in, I’m ready, I’m geared up. And that was my fight, man. It wasn’t like I was afraid to play. He’s not afraid to play.”
Isiah Thomas, the Detroit Pistons Hall of Famer, has become a mentor to his namesake. He recalled reassuring the younger Thomas when he was upset after the trade to Boston.
“It’s pretty awesome to have him here and to know where he’s come from and how hard he’s had to work to get here, and how many people doubted him,” Isiah Thomas said. “And sometimes, at night, I’m sure he had some self-doubt. But his crew, so to speak, we were always letting him know how good he was and just appreciating what he was going on the floor.“
Green and Thomas are the kind of players who reporters asked to give advice to kids at All-Star weekend. This happened to Thomas three times, as the Japanese media in particular wanted him to deliver a message to short people. Thomas said he wouldn’t buy some extra height if he could, as “I wouldn’t be as cool as I am if I was a little taller."
“No matter what, whatever it is that you believe, continue to work at it,” Green said. “It’ll be a lot of doubters along the way. So what? You’ll doubt some along the way. So what? Continue to work. One thing that people always told me is, 'Oh, he’s reached his ceiling, he’s done getting better.' If I continue to work, how can you say I reached a ceiling?”
