As part of a cleverly-disguised Nike marketing campaign, Kobe Bryant issued a challenge to Isaiah Thomas to make the All-NBA First Team in 2017-18.
.@Isaiah_Thomas I challenge you to make the All-NBA First Team next season #MambaMentality pic.twitter.com/kl8FN4JiO9
— Kobe Bryant (@kobebryant) August 24, 2017
The Black Mamba also singled out DeMar DeRozan, which left some other stars in the League feeling a tad jealous.
.@DeMar_DeRozan I challenge you to rekindle a lost friendship from your youth in Compton #MambaMentality pic.twitter.com/82XF2elJ1f
— Kobe Bryant (@kobebryant) August 24, 2017
Still waiting for my challenge.. @kobebryant
— GiannisAntetokounmpo (@Giannis_An34) August 24, 2017
Thomas was dealt to Cleveland in blockbuster trade Tuesday night, bringing an end to his remarkable three-year run with the Celtics.
Per the Boston Globe:
Isaiah Thomas’s father, James, has been an airplane parts inspector for Boeing for more than 30 years. He has been reassigned and relocated within Washington state before, and he never really blinked.
“When my job tells me I’ve got to go somewhere else, I go somewhere else,” he said in a telephone interview from Tacoma. “That’s work. Or, you find another job. That’s a part of life, even sports.”
James Thomas was a bit surprised when Isaiah called him Tuesday and said he had been traded from the Celtics to the Cavaliers.
“He’s still Isaiah, regardless of where he goes or what he does,” James Thomas said. “It’s a business. We’ve been doing good. Isaiah’s been doing great wherever he goes. And it’s just — it’s almost time for him to get paid.”
