WALTHAM -- Boston Celtics star Isaiah Thomas realizes he will need to exercise patience this summer. Everyone keeps stressing how important the concept will be while he recovers from a hip injury, but holding back won't be natural for him. He willl want to head to the YMCA in a couple of weeks, like he does every summer, and play as much basketball as he can.

The good news, from what Thomas said Friday, is that doctors don't sound overly concerned about the long-term effects of his right hip injury. As of now, Thomas said he hopes to avoid surgery, but that could change once the swelling goes down and he undergoes reevaluation.

"(Surgery is) not the No. 1 option right now but it could be once the swelling goes down," Thomas said Friday afternoon, addressing the media for the first time since the injury forced him out of the playoffs. "They want to let it die down a little bit then take another MRI once everything is down and it's back to normal. We'll go from there. Hopefully I don't have to have surgery but I know that is an option."

Thomas said his hip has been "a little different my whole life." Though admitting he doesn't fully understand the medical lingo, he said, "I have an extra bone or something."

"Since I fell down in March, I think that's what aggravated it," he explained. "And then I just continued to play on it, continued to try to do as much treatment as possible. Then it just gave out. We knew that would happen at some point. They knew I wasn't going to sit out until I couldn't move no more. That's what happened."

Celtics head coach Brad Stevens has said Thomas, even after the injury flared up in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals, begged to return to the court. His team trailed by more than 40 points in the second half, but Thomas wanted to push through the pain.

"Eastern Conference finals, that's the biggest stage I've ever been on," he said. "To not be able to go back out there in that second half and continue that series was painful. Like, it hurt me. Danny (Ainge) was right there, I couldn't get past him. They had multiple people come in and talk to me about what's more important, but I definitely wasn't trying to hear that at that point in time."

Despite initially fighting the advice, Thomas said he's grateful the Celtics have taken a long-term approach with his injury. Stevens and Ainge have stressed to him he should focus on what's best for his body.

"Everybody's saying I've gotta be patient," Thomas said. "I've never been patient in my life so this is going to be a tough summer. But I've gotta do what's best for me in the long run, what's best for my body. As Brad continues to say each and every day, it's how you're healthiest for the long run. Even Danny and those guys say that, so that says a lot about who they are as people. Most importantly, they care about my health, not just being a basketball player. So the Celtics are definitely behind me in this tough situation, but, I mean, nobody's going to feel sorry for me. I just have to keep going and figure out what I've gotta do to come back at the highest level possible."

Despite the odd structure of his hip, Thomas said doctors are "not too worried about it."

"They know how my body is, they know how hard I work," he said. "Their thing is just about being patient, letting the body heal on its own and then we go from there. So that's the thing that I've gotta trust in them about is just being patient and not rushing anything. Taking it day by day, and whatever happens within the next 4-6 weeks, then we go from there and attack that as is."

Thomas added: "The plan is to play until 40, and they know that. All them doctors know that. So whatever they have to do to continue to play at not just a normal level, at an MVP level, that's what I've been on them doctors about, and everybody on that training staff is. No matter what happens, let's make sure I come back even better. And I will."