Isaiah Thomas knew he wasn't going to be able to play in Tuesday's season opener against his former team. That unforunately wasn't close to the extent of the game's injury news.
According to NBC Sports Boston's A. Sherrod Blakely, Thomas went in to check on Gordon Hayward after the Celtics forward suffered a fractured left ankle in the first quarter of Tuesday's game.
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Though Thomas was traded to Cleveland before the two had a chance to play together, Hayward and the Celtics have credited Thomas with being a big piece of recruiting the former Jazz star.
"[The trade of Thomas to Cleveland] was a really strange moment because I'd really been looking forward to playing with him," Hayward wrote on his website last month. "He didn't just help recruit me to Boston--he was a big piece of that recruitment. He had talked a lot about city and how it was different to be a Celtic. He talked about the intensity of playing in the Eastern Conference Finals, playing at the Garden in the playoffs, and how much fun it was, and how much fun he had playing in Boston.
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"All of that ultimately helped win me over. And by the time of the trade, I had already started to build a little bit of a relationship with him."
