Found an interesting article of IT and Fultz's compatibility and commonalities on and off the court through the lens of their college coach, Lorenzo Romar.
Lots of good stuff in the article about both being late bloomers and having to work for it and consequently not acting entitled, about their ability to play both on and off the ball, making them compatible with each other and the rest of our talented guard corps and a lot of other interesting tidbits of info.
This was especially good to hear:
What about how they handle themselves away from the court?
LR: The thing about both of those guys is neither one of those guys, early on, were projected NBA players. Neither one. It came later for both of them, and for Isaiah, much later. So they have kind of an innate chip on their shoulder, theyre so driven I think because of it. They havent been given everything their whole life, on the basketball for sure. They havent been given anything. They had to earn everything. So neither one has a sense of entitlement, which makes them great with teammates and for any program or franchise. They dont have that sense of entitlement. Theyre both giving people. You dont find that very often nowadays.
Ill share a story about both guys:
The first month of school that Isaiah was with us as a freshman in college we went to a gospel mission to feed the homeless, serve lunch. And Isaiah and I were talking, and I said, You done this sort of thing before? And he said, Coach, my dad took us every week to do this sort of thing since I was very young. I thought that was interesting.
When Markelle was here, we had the team over for dinner early in his freshman year. My wife was preparing dinner and guys were playing ping pong or pool or watching television. Markelle was not around. I went upstairs and he was helping my wife set the table for the dinner. She didnt ask him to do that. He sat a few practices because he had a little a nagging injury and during that week hed get water and bring it to guys on the sideline.
Those sorts of things make those guys special to me, not just their talent.
https://www.boston.com/sports/boston-celtics/2017/05/29/markelle-fultz-and-isaiah-thomas-had-the-same-coach-he-knows-they-can-be-great-togetherHope for the future.
I recommend the read, and apologize if this has been posted already.