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WEST VALLEY CITY — It took all of 10 seconds for Isaiah Thomas to find his shot in his return to basketball. The two-time All-Star guard got a handoff from Micah Potter and rose for a wing 3-pointer. Splash.
"I'm still a little rusty. I really got no rhythm," Thomas said after his first game with the Salt Lake City Stars Thursday.
If recording 32 points and four assists is him rusty then Thomas may just have a path back to the NBA after all.
The former All-NBA guard, who hasn't played in the league for a couple seasons, officially started his comeback attempt Thursday, leading the Stars to a 127-116 win over the Texas Legends at the Maverik Center.
"It was a blessing to be out there," said Thomas, who was far from shy, going 7-of-23 from the field. "I was really excited. Just super thankful for the opportunity."
Thomas said the decision to join the Stars was a "no-brainer." It offered a platform for him to show there's more left in the tank, and, to Thomas, provides the quickest route back to the NBA. His goal is to be on a playoff roster to end the season.
"I'm here to show that I haven't lost a step," the 35-year-old guard said.
Thomas, though, hasn't played in the NBA since the 2021-22 season — a season where he only jumped around the league on a few 10-day deals. It's been seven years now since he led the Boston Celtics to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2017. That playoff run was cut short by a hip injury that has since derailed his career.
He was the third-leading scorer in the NBA during the 2016-17 season, averaging 28.9 points per game and finishing in the MVP voting. He played through injury to finish the season, and was never to regain the same All-NBA level.
"I'm 5-foot, 9-inches; if I don't play, they gonna forget about me," Thomas said in 2021. "That's how I always felt, just being the smaller guard. I played through it, hurt myself even more."
He missed the first two months of the 2017-18 campaign with Cleveland and averaged 14.7 points per game on just 36.1% shooting; he was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers at the deadline that season. Since then, he's also suited up for Denver, Washington, New Orleans, Dallas and Charlotte.
Still, his story resonates. The 5-foot-9 Thomas was the last pick in the NBA draft in 2011. By his fifth season, he was an All-Star point guard for arguably the league's most storied franchise and had earned the name "King of the Fourth" due to his clutch shot-making.
He doesn't think his story is over just yet.
"So many people hit me up about my story being inspiring to them changing their lives," he said. "And it just always looks like I don't have my head down or have a bad attitude or have negativity, but I'm human. I have those days, as well, but I try to have more positive days than those. I always say the easy thing to do is to quit, like everybody can quit. The hard thing to do is to keep going when you can't see the light at the end of the tunnel."
So he's giving the NBA another crack. It's because basketball is a game he still loves, and he wants to teach his kids a lesson, too. He has two sons (13 and 12) and a daughter (5), and they were a big reason he decided to answer the G League's call.
"At some point in their life, they're gonna hit some adversity where they could tap out and give up," he said.
He wants to show them their dad didn't do that.
"They've seen me at the lowest where I couldn't even get out of bed and I was hurt. So the biggest reason is them," he said. "I asked them, 'Should I go to the G league?' … and them two boys was like, 'You better go! We want to come see you play, too!' So that's the reason I keep going, and then the overall love of it."
