Boston Celtics' forward Jaylen Brown has a simple message for the select few Celtics fans who have shared videos of themselves burning Isaiah Thomas' jersey, "Pathetic."
Shortly after word got out that Thomas had been traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers, a handful of attention-seeking boneheads took barbecue lighters to their green and white #4 jerseys as if the 28-year old All-Star hadn't given his heart and soul to the organization over the last two and a half seasons.
Of course, this is a finite group of individuals who burned Thomas' jersey but Jaylen Brown's comments still stand, it is pathetic. And Brown's comments certainly seem to contradict a report by Chris Broussard, who yesterday claimed that Isaiah's Celtics teammates "weren't really that fond of him."
On yesterday's taping of "Undisputed" on Fox Sports 1, Chris Broussard said he had chatted with NBA executives who claimed Celtics players "really weren't that fond of Isaiah," citing his "Napoleon complex" and "huge ego." Broussard said, perNESN,
“I will tell you this, I spoke to several executives, or texted with several executives (Tuesday night), and a lot of them were saying that a lot of the players in Boston really weren’t that fond of Isaiah,” Broussard said on FS1’s “Undisputed” while discussing the trade with Shannon Sharpe and Skip Bayless. “We know he had those problems in Sacramento and in Phoenix. I didn’t know he was having those issues — before (talking with) these executives — in Boston.”
Broussard's claims are much different than the way Celtics GM Danny Ainge spoke about Thomas yesterday, and how hard it was to trade him. During a conference call with reporters, Ainge praised Isaiah and said "everybody fell in love with him."
“Trading both (Thomas and Crowder) was tough. But Isaiah had just an amazing season this year, and entertained us all – the whole city of Boston, and everybody fell in love with him. You know, he’s such an underdog because of his size, and his heart, and his spirit in which he plays. It was very challenging to make this decision.”