This story is in the February 17, 2017, issue of SPORTS ILLUSTRATED. To subscribe, click here.
Three hours before a late-January game in Washington, Isaiah Thomas, the Celtics’ 5'9" All-Star point guard, walks slowly through a Verizon Center tunnel, like a beleaguered civil servant going to work on a cold Tuesday morning, and onto the lacquered floor of the playing surface. The seats are empty, there is no music playing, and building personnel are bustling about. The hockey ice below the court keeps the air chilled. Thomas wears a green, long-sleeved shirt over practice shorts, three-quarter-length compression tights and low black Nikes with a green swoosh.