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Dave McMenamin
CloseESPN Staff Writer
- Cavs and NBA writer for ESPN.com
- Covered the Lakers and NBA for ESPNLosAngeles.com from 2009-14 and the NBA for NBA.com from 2005-09
- Syracuse University graduate
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Brian Windhorst
CloseESPN Senior Writer
- ESPN.com NBA writer since 2010
- Covered Cleveland Cavs for seven years
- Author of two books
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LeBron James and Isaiah Thomas weren't teammates for long, but their history has been dramatic.
Last May 26 in Boston's TD Garden, in the moments after the Cleveland Cavaliers finished off the Eastern Conference Finals with a 33-point win, LeBron James came down to the end of the Celtics' bench and found Isaiah Thomas.
James wrapped his arms around Thomas and spoke into his ear, holding the embrace even as Thomas began to pull away. James, like millions of NBA fans, was moved by Thomas last spring as he played some of the best basketball of his life despite the devastating death of his sister. It was a personal and telling moment of respect and admiration.
Eight months later, James made a breathtaking buzzer-beater to win an overtime game against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Thomas, now his teammate, was one of the first people to reach James to celebrate. James ignored him, practically turning his back as he embraced others.
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Check out LeBron James' dramatic game-winning turnaround jumper in overtime from all the angles.
Thomas had played a hopeful game that night, showing a pass-first approach and having the fewest shot attempts and the second-most assists in his brief Cavs career. He was thrashing around, trying to learn to play on the fly with James while rehabbing from the worst injury of his career.
But James knew something Thomas didn't -- that the Cavs intended to trade Thomas the next day -- and his cold response made it clear. And the feelings were never as warm as they had been when Thomas was a defeated playoff combatant. It was a symbolic moment that bookended a bizarre and unpleasant few months for the two men.
"It hasn't been as planned, but I definitely want to be here," Thomas said that night. "We definitely have a real chance to win an NBA championship, and I want to be a part of that."
The next day, at just past noon Eastern, Thomas was dealt, along with Channing Frye and a 2018 first-round pick, to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for Jordan Clarkson and Larry Nance Jr.
Now, a month later, the Cavs and Thomas will be back together again with the Lakers hosting the Cavaliers on Sunday. And as time has passed, an autopsy of Thomas' disastrous days in Cleveland shows a marriage that never had a chance of survival.
"I think there's probably a lot of 'what ifs' with him," Cavs guard Kyle Korver said to ESPN when asked about Thomas in L.A. this weekend. "If he had been healthy, if he had been able to have a training camp and start from the beginning of the season, there's no question he's a dynamic guard. When he's healthy, he's a problem. He's someone who can take a big chunk of the scoring load.
"But the way that it all played out, with him coming back so late in the season and trying to find his rhythm, it just didn't work. The fit wasn't there. That's not a knock on anybody. I think if you go across the NBA, for everyone outside of a few superstar players, the fit really matters. And for whatever number of reasons, things just didn't work out, and I think there were a lot of factors that played into that."
There were three factors weighing on Thomas' tenure in Cleveland above all else: his health, his contract situation and the Cavs' championship-or-bust credo. Any one of those three challenges would be a load to handle alone. Their combined impact suffocated Thomas and created an insurmountable atmosphere, which is saying something for a man who has made a career out of beating the odds.
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And there was a fourth factor that poisoned the pool for Thomas in Cleveland before he even dipped his toes into the water: James was against the trade that sent Kyrie Irving to the Boston Celtics to bring Thomas there in the first place.
As he showed last year, James had respect for Thomas and his battle back from a hip injury. But James was skeptical from the start. The injury itself was worrisome. James' agent also represented Jonny Flynn, a small guard who had his promising career derailed by hip injuries.
"When you think about hip injuries, you think of Jonny Flynn," the Cavs' Tristan Thompson, who shares an agent with James, told ESPN. "And I was very close to Jonny Flynn. ... So, it's a tough thing. You got to be patient. And the tough part about being on the Cavs, there is no time. ... You got to be ready to go right away."
Then there was the transaction. It's well known that James preferred the Cavs not trade Irving, but there was more. Sources close to James, a master of applying leverage, said he was less than impressed by how the Cavs handled reworking the Irving deal once the severity of Thomas' injury became clear.
Had the Cavs backed out, which they considered doing for several days, the Celtics would have been in a tough position. They had already celebrated Irving's arrival and would have alienated Thomas and Jae Crowder. Adding to the Cavs' leverage was the nature of Thomas' hip injury becoming public, thereby further diminishing his trade value and putting Boston in an even tighter spot if the deal fell through.
When the dust settled, the fact that Cleveland got only a second-round pick after pausing the deal -- and not an additional first-rounder or young player such as Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown or Terry Rozier -- didn't just disappoint James as a basketball player. It disappointed him as a businessman.
All this before Thomas took a single dribble.
Thomas' rise from the last pick of the 2011 NBA draft to a two-time All-Star is well chronicled. The 5-foot-9 Thomas won the hearts and minds of sports fans around the country when he scored 53 points on a bum hip during the 2017 postseason just weeks after his sister, Chyna, died in a car accident. When Thomas' playoff ride ended and it became apparent he could go no more in Game 2 of last spring's conference finals, he was inconsolable in the trainer's room at TD Garden, sources said, alternating between tears and screams as he pleaded his case to get back on the court.
Thomas brought that same fire to his rehabilitation process in Cleveland, which was both inspiring and infuriating for those involved. Thomas is hardheaded by nature, a distinction as well as a curse, and had occasional mood swings as he dealt with the frustration of the rehab. When he would post social media updates along the way, he frequently attached the phrase "#ThatSLOWgrind," which might have been a message to himself as much as a catchphrase.
The same stubborn side to which he owed his success worked against him at times, sources said, when he would question workouts or want to push harder rather than follow the program. After Thomas finally played his first game with the Cavs on Jan. 2 and entered the postgame locker room at Quicken Loans Arena, the team presented the game ball to Cavs physical therapist George Sibel -- and not to Thomas -- in a tongue-in-cheek gesture of appreciation for managing Thomas through his rehab. A significant part of Sibel's time with Thomas became handling the guard's sometimes-prickly personality as much as strengthening the injured hip. Thomas scored 17 points in just 19 minutes that night in what was a much-needed victory over the Portland Trail Blazers, showing some of the instant and relentless scoring ability that made him a star in Boston. He followed that up with 19 points in 21 minutes in a win in Orlando in his second game, extending the excitement.
Behind the scenes, though, the Cavs were still concerned. Team sources indicated patience at the time, telling reporters they were not out of the woods when it came to Thomas' recovery. The Cavs' training staff always approached it with a big-picture mentality, prioritizing his long-term health while protecting his value as an asset for the organization. Thomas agitated for an earlier return, hoping to play by the Christmas game at Golden State, but ended up admitting he was still at only 75 or 80 percent when he did come back, despite those early successes.
There also was the issue of practice time. The Cavs, the oldest team in the NBA at the time, rarely had the type of contact scrimmages that Thomas needed. At one point, the team bused its entire G-League squad from Canton, an hour away, to the Cavs' practice facility so Thomas could scrimmage with them.
Thomas wasn't delusional, either. As he prepared to return, he made it clear he wasn't himself.
"My hip is better, but I have no rhythm. I have no feel for the game right now," Thomas said at the time. "I've been out for so long, it feels like I lost my powers."
The Cavs were aware of the challenge when they made the trade. Not that Irving was without warts -- this was a guy who between playoff rounds last spring became so distant from teammates he wouldn't engage in conversation at practice, according to sources, leaving team officials perplexed as to what could be bothering him.
The book on Thomas was that at times he grated on teammates and coaches. There was a reason the Cavs were Thomas' fourth team in seven years. Not that this is unusual in the NBA. But Thomas consistently has been an overachiever and
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