Former Celtics All-Star Hopes New Job Leads To Eventual Role As NBA GM originally appeared on NESN. Add NESN as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
It was reported recently that the Boston Celticswere hiring former All-Star guard Isaiah Thomas as a pro and college scout.
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The 37-year-old discussed the new gig on his “Point Game” podcast, which had its latest episode released on Tuesday.
“This has not been the easiest transition, first and foremost, because I can still play at a high level,” Thomas said. “But, I’ve still got to look out for what’s best for my future and knowing what I want to do moving forward. So, just getting my feet wet and adding to the resume.”
The undersized lefty was selected by the Sacramento Kings with the final pick of the 2011 NBA Draft and spent the first three seasons of his career with the team, recording 20.3 points per game and a career-high 6.3 assists and 34.7 minutes per game during the 2013-14 campaign. Thomas then joined the Phoenix Suns before being traded to the Celtics in February 2015.
The Washington product played with Boston through the 2016-17 season and led the team to the playoffs (including a conference finals appearance) in both of his full campaigns while pacing the squad in scoring among other categories.
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Thomas finished fifth in the MVP voting in 2017 while earning his lone second team All-NBA honor as well.
He said that taking the scouting job with the Celtics has “been in the works for a while.”
“We were just tying to make sure everything made sense for both sides,” Thomas said. “It’s something that I’ve always wanted to do, be a part of an organization, be a part of the front office and help make these decisions that are being made down the line. So this is a step in the right direction in terms of, you know, hopefully one day being a GM or head of basketball operations or whatever the game of basketball takes me.”
He said that re-joining Boston was an easy choice.
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“The Celtics did right by me, they’ve been wanting me to do this for a while, and it was something of interest,” the former fan favorite said. “And we came to something that made sense and it and it still allowed me to be able to do these things like do our podcast, (and) coach my boys, which was very important for me.”