Inside The Huskies

Isaiah Thomas Isn't Done Yet -- Signs G League Contract, Eyeballs NBA Return

The former UW guard just wants to keep playing, even as his 36th birthday approaches.
Dan Raley|
Ex-Husky guard Isaiah Thomas watches the Phoenix Suns face the Minnesota Timberwolves in the 2024 NBA playoffs.
Ex-Husky guard Isaiah Thomas watches the Phoenix Suns face the Minnesota Timberwolves in the 2024 NBA playoffs. | Brad Rempel-Imagn Images

With Isaiah Thomas, you have to admire his innate desire to play basketball.

It never wanes. Motivates him every day. Keeps him dreaming.

On Monday, ESPN's Shams Charania reported that the former University of Washington guard -- a 13-season NBA veteran and who will turn 36 years old on Feb. 7 -- has signed with the G League's Salt Lake City Stars with sole intention of making it back to the big show one more time.

The 5-foot-9 Thomas, a two-time NBA All-Star, did something similar last year, as well, joining the Stars for four games and averaging 32.5 points and 5.3 assists, enabling him to join the Phoenix Suns for six outings on a pair of 10-day contracts.

The Tacoma native has never been far from the game, working out at the UW during the offseason and showing up for recent Husky outings against fellow Big Ten opponents.

First-year UW coach Danny Sprinkle even had Thomas speak to the current team and share his motivations for playing the game.

When he took the job, Sprinkle said he would pursue the best local players available and he went out and signed guard Zoom Diallo, who played for Thomas' alma mater, Curtis High School.

Thomas has been on the active roster for 10 different NBA franchises, averaging a career-best 28.9 points per game for the Boston Celtics during the 2016-17 season. He was an All-Star selection in 2016 and 2017.

Hip problems eventually curtailed Thomas's NBA career, eventually leading to multiple corrective procedures, including a right hip resurfacing surgery in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, but didn't put him into immediate retirement..

Thomas was born in 1989, the same year the Detroit Pistons won an NBA championship, and he was named after Isiah Thomas, the Pistons' standout guard, under the condition set by his mother that the biblical spelling would be used.

For the latest UW football and basketball news, go to si.com/college/washington

Published
Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

Home/Husky Legends