Now that Isaiah Thomas has been traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers, the two-time NBA All Star will have an opportunity to play alongside his long-time friend, Kevin Love.
Thomas’ friendship with Love goes back more than a decade, when they were AAU teammates in 2005. In fact, Thomas used to stay at the Love household on occasion. According to Scott Patsko of Cleveland.com, Thomas, a native of Curtis, Wash., would travel nearly three hours by train to Portland, Oregon, to stay with Love and his family.
“Kevin and his dad, Stan, they would come pick me up and I would stay the weekend at his house so I could play on that AAU team,” Thomas told The Vertical podcast earlier this year. “It’s something that me and Kevin, we’ll talk about. It’s crazy that we’re both in the NBA and he is at the level he’s at, and I’m doing pretty well. To be able to say that I used to go to his house every other weekend and stay the night, and his parents used to cook dinner, and all that type of thing, it’s crazy to see that.”
According to Sports Illustrated’s Lee Jenkins, Thomas received a “welcome text” from Love just moments after being informed of the trade.
Changing teams can be a challenging task for any athlete, but it looks like Love is making every effort to make his friend feel at home.