Former All-NBA guard Isaiah Thomas is feeling like his old self again after having surgery to correct his troublesome hip.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and The Athletic’s Shams Charania report Thomas, a free agent, will be ready for the 2020-21 season following a procedure in May to resurface his right hip.
“It’s like night and day for me,” Thomas told ESPN. “There’s no more pain. I’ve got my full range of motion. For three years, I was trying to play the best players in the world on one leg. I needed help from my kids to put my socks on in the morning.
“Now, I can lift weights. I can squat low. I can work out twice a day. I’m able to cut and move and stop, able to cut and go. I feel like I’m 31 years old again. And now, I have scientific evidence to show that.”
Thomas averaged 12.2 points and 3.7 assists in 40 games for the Wizards this season. The 30-year-old guard has played for seven NBA teams since being drafted out of Washington in 2011. He was traded from the Wizards to the LA Clippers in the Marcus Morris trade that involved the Knicks, but Thomas was waived by the Clippers two days after they acquired him.
After being waived by the Clippers, Thomas decided something had to change with his hip, Wojnarowski reports. Thomas then saw Dr. Edwin Su in New York, who performed the resurfacing procedure on the guard. He was fitted with a unique type of artificial joint to account for the fact that Thomas, 31, is different from the typical patient.
“The goal was to give him a smooth joint surface so he doesn’t feel pain and has better mobility,” Su said. “We have more confidence for athletes like Isaiah to back to full activity.”
In his career, Thomas averaged 18.1 points and 5.0 assists and was an All-Star in 2015-16 and 2016-17 with the Boston Celtics. He made the All-NBA second team in 2016-17 and finished fifth in Kia MVP voting that season, too. His injury problems began that season and Thomas attempted to push through the injury during the 2017 Eastern Conference finals.
After Boston fell into a 2-0 series hole to the Cleveland Cavaliers, Thomas was shut down before Game 3. He was then dealt to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Kyrie Irving trade and did not make his debut until New Year’s Day 2018. A little more than a month later he was dealt to the Los Angeles Lakers with Channing Frye for Jordan Clarkson and Larry Nance Jr.
Since then, Thomas has played for the Denver Nuggets in 2018-19 and Wizards last season, signing with both as a free agent.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
