Isaiah Thomas
Boston Celtics guard Isaiah Thomas celebrates during a game earlier this season.
(AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
ATLANTA -- The Boston Celtics' past and present intersected Thursday night when Isaiah Thomas visited Kevin Garnett and Shaquille O'Neal on TNT's "Area 21" set.
Though O'Neal regularly harps on his wish that Thomas could grow a few inches -- "like I'm going to have to hit a growth spurt or something," Thomas quipped -- Garnett has raved without disclaimers about the lefty's impact on the current Boston squad. During TV appearances, the Celtics legend regularly compliments Thomas' heart, energy and approach to basketball. It was neat to see the two relentless competitors together, and to watch Thomas learn that Garnett considers him an MVP candidate.
"I've got you in that conversation for MVP, bro," Garnett told Thomas on the show.
"I appreciate it," Thomas replied. "Especially coming from somebody like you."
Before a Friday shootaround in Atlanta, Thomas expanded on his reaction to Garnett's comments.
"That's what means the most," Thomas said. "I don't really care about what anybody else says but my peers and the people who did it before me because they really know what it takes to be great, and to hear stuff like that from KG is just -- I always say all the time, it doesn't seem real to hear the guys that did it before me and such greats and legends like those two are. (For them) to talk highly of me is unbelievable."
For the record, Thomas said he belongs "right behind Westrbook and Harden" in the MVP conversation.
Why behind those guys?
"They're having years that you can't take away what they're doing. I'm not," Thomas said. "They're getting triple-doubles every other game. I'm not close to that, but in a normal year I'd probably be up there."
Despite failing to record as many triple-doubles as Westbrook and Harden, Thomas has put up silly enough numbers to draw a statistical comparison to Allen Iverson at the same age. As displayed in this CSNNE graphic that floated through Twitter last week, Thomas actually had better stats across the board than Iverson posted at 27 years old:
Iverson played in a different era, of course, and actually had better years at ages 25 and 26. Still, Thomas has put himself in incredible company with his offensive production -- and he's done it in considerably fewer minutes than Iverson. Thomas laughed while thinking about what he would accomplish over 42.5 minutes per game.
"I can imagine my numbers, yeah," he said. "I'd be averaging about 38, 39 a game. But nah, that says a lot about (Iverson). For him to be able to play that many minutes each and every night. He's hurt, he's not sitting out. That says a lot. So I wish I could play that many minutes."
"It's all right," Thomas said of his season. "I don't know. I felt like it should be like what it is right now. But as a team we can always get better. I can always do a lot better. There's always room for improvement."