Isaiah Thomas carved out a legendary stint with the Boston Celtics, even if he wasn’t even a member of the team for three full seasons. His tenure with the Celtics spanned from midway through the 2014-15 season up to the end of the 2016-17 campaign.

And Thomas saved his best season as a member of the storied franchise for his swan song with the team, the 2016-17 season. The diminutive point guard recently looked back on his final season in Boston with fondness.

“That season was crazy because the season before, I think I averaged like 22 and a half,” Thomas told co-hosts and former NBA players Quentin Richardson and Darius Miles in a recent appearance on the Knuckleheads podcast.

“Like I had a good year. That was my first All-Star year. That’s when I started to realize like, I’m one of them players. Like I’m one of them players — I started to visualize all that stuff. I started to connect with the great players — that’s at the time where I started to build a relationship with Kobe Bryant. Build a friendship with Tom Brady — I was super close with Floyd Mayweather. So, like, I was trying to surround myself with greatness.”

Thomas was one of the more prolific scorers in the NBA during the 2016-17 regular season. He averaged 28.9 points per game, which is the third-highest scoring average of any player in the history of the Celtics franchise. 

Jayson Tatum and Larry Bird are the only two players to average more points per game in a Celtics jersey. 

The 5-foot-9 point guard propelled the 2016-17 iteration of the Celtics to plenty of teamwide success as well. Boston won 53 games during the regular season and ended up with the best record in the Eastern Conference. 

Plus, with Thomas as the straw that stirred the team’s offense, the Celtics reached the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in five years.

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