Isaiah Thomas' journey through his eyes: Cavs star chronicles comeback

Sam Amick | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption NBA Buzz: What LeBron-Knicks beef was really about SportsPulse: USA TODAY Sports' Sam Amick and AJ Neuharth-Keusch break down the drama between LeBron James and the New York Knicks.

Isaiah Thomas knows he can’t control where his underdog story goes next.

Does he come back better than ever from the hip injury that forced him off the floor back in May, when his Boston Celtics fell in the conference finals to the very Cleveland Cavaliers team that would trade for him less than three months later? Does he get sweet revenge with LeBron James at his side, maybe even beating Kyrie Irving’s Celtics in a conference finals rematch that leads to his first chance to win it all?

“Oh, that would be lovely,” he says with a laugh. “That would be a special moment. If they make it there, and we make it there, and then we clash…”

It would make for rich NBA theatre – the very kind that Thomas is already proving quite capable of producing.

Literally.

The 28-year-old launched his pet project today on The Players’ Tribune platform, a docu-series deemed “The Book of Isaiah II” that was shot by his close friend, filmmaker T.J. Regan, and will chronicle the time between those 2017 playoffs and present day. Each episode will feature behind-the-scenes footage of what has been a challenging and emotional time on the personal and professional fronts.

From the April death of his 22-year-old sister, Chyna, in a one-car accident on a highway not far from their hometown in Tacoma, Wash. to the late August trade that he never saw coming, Thomas has been reminded that control is hard to come by in life. But the telling of his story, as Thomas sees it, belongs to him.

“I've been documenting my (journey) since my junior year of college (at the University of Washington),” Thomas, the 5-foot-9, two-time All-Star who went from being the 60th pick of the 2011 draft to fifth in MVP voting last season, told USA TODAY Sports by phone. “When it comes down to it, I'm going to make a movie of my story.”

And he’ll do it by way of his production company that has such a fitting name.

This series marks the beginning of Thomas’ “Slow Grind Media,” which has been in the works since those pre-NBA days when he was dominating for the Huskies. Before Thomas entered the draft, he noticed some of Regan’s work with rap artists and decided to track him down. Before long, they were fast friends who had a shared vision.

Year after year, from Sacramento to Phoenix to his Boston breakout and now the Cleveland chapter, they’ve been stockpiling footage with high-end equipment for what has already become quite a tale. This, in a way, is merely a glimpse of what’s to come.

“(Regan) is the guy behind the camera and did everything on his own (until they partnered with Players’ Tribune late in the process),” said Thomas, who has two young sons with his wife, Kayla. “But me and my wife thought of (the project) last year, last summer, about documenting from the end of the season to the start of the season, to show the world what the grind is really like – whether that be the family grind, whether that be me being with my kids each and every day, taking them to their sports activities, being a father, being a husband, also being a family man, visiting my Mom and my Dad and my sisters, and my siblings and things like that. And then on top of that, I've still got to work and get better.”

To say the least.

By this time next month, Thomas is hoping to be in the final stages of a recovery process that has been, well, the slowest of grinds. After Thomas initially hurt his right hip in March, he played through the pain until re-aggravating the injury in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against Washington and eventually succumbing to the season-ending injury after Game 2 of the conference finals against the Cavs. The rehab process started from there, with the Celtics announcing in late July that he would not undergo surgery. On Aug. 22, as Thomas kept making his way back and amid so much uncertainty about when he might be able to play again, Boston sent him to Cleveland along with Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic, and a 2018 first-round pick (via Brooklyn) in exchange for Irving.

Or so we thought.

After Thomas took his standard physical with the Cavs, team officials had enough concern about his hip to put the deal on hold for eight days. Eventually, after Boston sent a 2020 second-rounder to sweeten the Cavs’ pot and the worries dissipated enough to get the deal done, he was officially James’ new co-star.

Yet all along the way, Thomas grew tired of the speculation about what it all meant and whether he could ever be the same player. Being without basketball was tough enough without all the doom-and-gloom prognostications, especially considering Thomas had never had to miss this sort of extended stretch. And yet again, he was reminded of why, in his story, it’s his voice that matters most.

“When it first happened, the trade and everybody was talking about, 'Oh, is the trade going to go through,' yeah (I was frustrated) because that was the first time I ever dealt with something like that,” he said. “So I was like, 'What is going on? I'm sitting here in these meetings, and the doctor's not even saying the stuff that I'm reading and seeing on TV.' So then when I really sat down and thought about it, I'm like, 'These people who are talking are not even in these meetings. These people who are talking have not even seen one MRI from my hip.' So I can't control what people think or say about what's going on in my hip. I know, and I know that I'm going to be OK. I just know it's going to take time. That's just what it is, and I can't control that.

“The people in my circle, and the people who I deal with each and every day, know that I'm going to back and (that) I'm going to be back being at least the same player. And I'm looking to be even better, so I mean all those little factors motivate me to just keep going and just keep pushing through.”

While Jan. 1 has been pegged as a possible return date, Thomas and his associates are hopeful that he could return even sooner. He finally feels like a basketball player again, with on-court activities a regular part of the routine and strength and conditioning now the priorities in the process. But as Thomas well knows, he can only control so much. And so his story, as told by him more than anyone else, continues.

“This is what I live for,” he said. “Every time something happens in my career, I always bounce back and it's bigger than anything anybody ever thought. And this is just going to be the same thing. I'm excited about the opportunity. I'm excited to be able to be on this stage playing and battling with the best player in the world. …I'm ready for all that, and I'm preparing right now for all of that, and I can't wait.”

Follow USA TODAY Sports' Sam Amick on Twitter @Sam_Amick