I apologize if this has already been posted somewhere, but looks like IT is trying to smooth things over. Good on him AND Coach Stevens.
"It happens. I didn't mean to throw anybody under the bus," Thomas said before the Celtics went through a shootaround at the University of San Francisco while preparing for Wednesday's game against the Golden State Warriors. "That's not me. I just said how I felt at that time. My job is just to move on and do my job and don't make it a distraction, because it's not.
"I was frustrated, I thought we should have won -- the last two games -- and that's just how I felt. I was always taught to speak my mind. But for the most part, I don't want to be a distraction. My teammates know that. It's bigger than how I feel, I guess. I'm trying to move forward and look forward to tonight, and hopefully we can get a win."
Grown Man talking. Just what I want from a Leader - one who owns his mistakes.
Comments from "The" Leader - Coach Stevens. Seems conciliatory about the whole thing and ready to move on.
Stevens said he didn't consider Thomas' comments an issue until they became a national story.
"At the end of the day, I didn't put much thought into it until it became a deal that everybody was talking about," Stevens said. "And, at that point in time, I heard from Isaiah pretty quickly. So again, I don't put a lot of stock [into it]. I understand the emotions and how high they run at the end of games, win or lose. And that's something that -- I have to go out there every day and talk after the game too and it's not an easy thing to do all the time. And so I get it.
"And I'm OK with the fact that people are going to say some things. And you may have to have that moment where you communicate back and forth. But I don't put too much stock into it to be honest
More from CBS - about the Line-up experimenting questions
That may be the way that he views things, right? Maybe it's the way that he saw that stuff play out," Stevens said. "But from our standpoint, the other night it was more about bodies available and foul trouble. So it's part of it. Hey, we didn't play well."
Stevens later added: "I'm not worried about it. Like I said, I know it's something to talk about. One of the things I've learned in the NBA is that you have 82 games, and so you kind of ride this roller coaster of emotions game to game and everything else. But I think you just have to do your best regardless of scenario to move onto what's next. And again, Isaiah reached out to me really quickly. If it would have been reversed where I would have had to initiate it, I think that may be an issue. But it wasn't. I didn't lose any sleep over it."
Finally - MORE of IT4 owning up to his mistake
I gotta do a better job of calming down after tough games, tough losses. I'm always going to be me. And that's the only way I know how," Thomas said. "Like I said to Brad, I'm not here to throw anybody under the bus because I wouldn't want anybody to do that to me. That's just how I felt at that time. Yes, I have to do a better job of it and I know that. I'm here to be Isaiah Thomas and lead and win games. And I know if we win that wouldn't have even been a problem."
Reaction from his teammates
Thomas, who also seemed to suggest that Crowder hesitated too long on a game-changing inbound pass at the end of a loss to Phoenix on Sunday (something Crowder owned when he spoke on it), stressed that none of his teammates had approached him about his comments, and they understood his frustration.
"Nobody's even talked about it. We're not even worried about that. It's a distraction because [the media] keep talking about it," Thomas said with a playful jab at reporters. "Nobody's even brought it up one time. That's what happens, I guess. Like he said, it's how I am now. I gotta do a better job and I will, and I understand that."
http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/18855864/not-throwing-boston-celtics-teammates-coach-busI love IT4 and this team. I'm hoping that in lieu of Danny NOT making a trade that we can ADD to this group in the offseason - either through the draft OR FA.
Special Coach, Team and PG we have here.