National Basketball Association

Isaiah Thomas shouts out lone voter for all-defensive second team

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

Sports Illustrated, Tim Kiernan/Sports Illustrated

Isaiah Thomas can do a lot of things on the basketball court, but defense is not his strength.

By measure of ESPN.com's real defensive plus/minus, Thomas is one of the worst defenders in the league. Whether you attribute it to his prohibitive 5'9" frame or just a general lack of defensive skill, there's no denying that Thomas is, at the very least, underperforming on the defensive end.

So when it came time to reveal the results of the NBA All-Defensive team polls, most were surprised to see that Thomas appeared on the list of players that received votes. He received a single nomination for the All-Defensive second team.

Seeing Thomas's name among the ranks of some of the NBA's best defenders had many scratching their heads, including IT himself.

He had a sense of humor about it, and projected a "3rd team all defense" nomination next year.