1 report says Isaiah Thomas was disliked. Celtics teammates and coaches say otherwise.

From the outside, it seemed like Isaiah Thomas was a perfect teammate during his time on the Boston Celtics. He played hard as hell. He put his 5’9 body on the line constantly driving to the rim with abandon. His sister passed away last playoffs, and Thomas played in the Celtics game one day later. Later in those playoffs, he scored 53 points.

One report tried to claim otherwise — here’s what Chris Broussard said on Fox Sports 1 on Friday. (H/t to NESN.)

“I will tell you this, I spoke to several executives, or texted with several executives (Tuesday), and a lot of them were saying that a lot of the players in Boston really weren’t that fond of Isaiah,” Broussard said. “We know he had those problems in Sacramento and in Phoenix. I didn’t know he was having those issues — before (talking with) these executives — in Boston.”

But there were other reasons Boston would move on from Thomas: his defensive weaknesses, a nagging injury suffered last postseason, his age compared to Kyrie Irving, and his upcoming free agency. His trade definitely doesn’t imply he was disliked.

It didn’t take long for the people closest to Thomas in Boston to disagree with Broussard’s report. Kelly Olynyk, teammates with Thomas for all two-and-a-half seasons he spent there, immediately chimed in. (Olynyk now plays in Miami.)

Evan Turner, whose time with Thomas in Boston overlapped for a year and a half, responded as strongly as anyone.

“(Thomas) is the type of person to more so be hurt if someone wasn’t giving their all because that little dude battles,” Turner told Celtics Blog. “I can’t even put into words bruh, you just gotta see it. And to see him rise is unreal. Nothing ill should ever be said about that guy. He’s maximizing everything he’s been blessed with on and off the court.”

Likewise, Celtics assistant coach Walter McCarty responded.

Marcus Smart didn’t specifically address the tweet, but mentioned his regret for Thomas (and Jae Crowder) to be moving on.

And here’s Jared Sullinger, too:

(Poor NESN is getting roasted for a tweet that is only relaying Broussard’s report!)

From everything we know about Thomas, it always seemed unlikely that he would be anything but a fan favorite in the locker room. We’ll see if anyone else chimes in, but looks like Broussard (or the front office types he is quoting) aren’t totally correct.