Isaiah Thomas breaks his silence: Takeaways from his goodbye letter to Boston

Hours before the Cavaliers are set to hold an introductory press conference for him on Thursday morning (you can watch it at 11 a.m. at Cavs.com with live updates here at the Boston Sports Journal), Isaiah Thomas broke his silence about the blockbuster trade that sent him to the Cavaliers in a heartfelt piece just posted on the Players' Tribune. In it, Thomas reveals how he found out about the trade, his reaction to it, his connection with the city of Boston and much more. The post follows up an Instagram video that was released by the point guard on Tuesday night that shows some of his first moments as a Cav after the deal.

While I strongly suggest you go over and read the full Players' Tribune letter from Thomas in its entirely, there is pretty to unpack and digest from the All-Star point guard in the wake of the deal. With that in mind, here are a few notable takeaways from the piece.

1. We found out how Thomas heard about the trade:

When I got the call from Danny, I was leaving the airport — my wife, Kayla, and I were coming back from having celebrated our one-year wedding anniversary. We’d gone to Miami for a couple of days — and now we were back in Seattle, driving home.

I missed the call, must have been doing something in the car. Danny left a text.

“IT, call me when you can.”

Danny Ainge had elected to keep the details of that conversation private in his conference call with reporters a couple weeks back, so it was a revealing to hear some of Thomas' emotions in the wake of such a shocking move. Ainge understandably tried to ease into the trade talk and spoke glowingly about his point guard afterwards, but it was fascinating to hear some genuine reaction from Thomas afterwards. How he wanted to simply get off the phone and ends things there immediately.

2. Thomas thinks the Celtics made a big mistake

It’s not that I don’t understand it. Of course I get it: This is a business. Danny is a businessman, and he made a business move. I don’t agree with it, just personally, and I don’t think the Boston Celtics got better by making this trade. But that’s not my job. That’s Danny’s. And it’s a tough job, and he’s been really good at it. But at the end of the day, these deals just come down to one thing: business. So it’s no hard feelings on that end. I’m a grown man, and I know what I got into when I joined this league — and so far it’s been more blessings than curses. I’m not sitting here, writing this, because I feel I was wronged. I wasn’t wronged. It was Boston’s right to trade me.

No surprise here, obviously. What else would Thomas be expected to say? He had a better regular season than Irving last year and finished top-5 in the MVP voting. His former team packaged him with a important 3-and-D wing, a rookie center and a likely lottery pick for the Kyrie Irving. Obviously, there were plenty of underlying factors in play (i.e. Isaiah's hip condition and contractual situation making him a secondary part of the deal) but from a ego perspective, this was a pretty big eyeopener for Thomas.

3. Thomas couldn't have said goodbye to Boston in a more gracious manner

This really wasn't surprising to me after covering Thomas for a couple of years and seeing how much of a connection he had with the area, but he really should be lauded for the way he wrote this letter. The 29-year-old had plenty of reasons to be upset and go off on the Celtics for being dealt after he spent the last couple seasons playing through injury and tragedy, while also helping them recruit All-Star big names to town. Instead of venting, Thomas took a honest and genuine approach. He didn't gloss over the painful reality of the situation for him, but he also refused to take shots at people on his way out the door. Instead, he took the situation as a lesson and an example of the business.

Between that and his heartfelt goodbye to Boston fans, I can only imagine how loud the TD Garden ovation will be for him when the Cavs make their visit to Boston on January 3rd.