Celtics

Morning sports update: Isaiah Thomas played pickup basketball at Emerson on Sunday

Also: Jackie Bradley Jr. recounts his best catch, Ichiro is still good, and some Super Bowl XXXVI trivia.

Former Celtic Isaiah Thomas plays for the Nuggets in 2019.

By Hayden Bird

The Revolution fell to Toronto FC on Sunday, 3-2. Jozy Altidore scored the 80th-minute winner for Toronto after coming off the bench. New Revs signing Carles Gil scored both of New England’s goals.

The Bruins and Celtics return to action on Monday. The Bruins are away to play the Islanders at 7 p.m. while the Celtics are at home against the Nuggets (7:30 p.m.)

Isaiah Thomas played pickup at Emerson: Former Celtics guard Isaiah Thomas still has love for the city of Boston, even after he was traded in a deal for Kyrie Irving in 2017. With the Nuggets in town for a Monday matchup with the Celtics, Thomas tweeted that he would potentially stop by a local gym:

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After former teammate Terry Rozier challenged Thomas to some one-on-one, the 30-year-old settled on stopping by Emerson College.

Emerson hosts Celtics opponents for practice purposes (though the school’s elevators don’t always function perfectly, as the Trail Blazers recently discovered). After he was done with team activities, Thomas stayed to play pickup with some Emerson students.

Thomas also left the door open to a possible return to the Celtics in the future.

“You never know,” he told Boston Globe reporter Adam Himmelsbach. “You can’t predict the future. My options are always open for anybody. I’m a Denver Nugget now, but I’m a free agent at the end of the season, and you never know what can happen. Who knows?”

Trivia: Seven Patriots starters in Super Bowl XXXVI were signed as free agents either before or during the 2001 season. How many of them can you name? (Answer is at the bottom).

Hint: Two of them were skill players, one was a fullback, one was an offensive lineman, one a defensive lineman, and two were linebackers.

More from Boston.com:

Jackie Bradley Jr. made an insane catch in a spring training game on Saturday: The Red Sox outfielder made what he called the “most amazing play I’ve ever made.”

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Boston Globe Red Sox writer Alex Speier caught up with Bradley afterward, getting the full story. Here’s a glimpse of where Bradley started on the play as he stumbled before recovering to make the catch:

Mike Scott of the 76ers took a moment during Sunday’s hard-fought win over the Bucks to enjoy a sip:

Ichiro, playing in an exhibition game in Japan, still looks pretty good:

And he still has a great arm:

On this day: In 1953, the Boston Braves moved to Milwaukee. At the time, the reaction to the jarring decision – baseball’s first relocation in half a century – was somewhat muted.

“The Braves may have left, but Boston’s apathy for them remained,” wrote Globe reporter Joseph F. Dineen Jr. The exceptions to this, according to Dineen, were “a few isolated cases of faithful followers and fans of the dollar who stand to lose money.”

Also, in 1995, Michael Jordan announced his return to basketball:

Daily highlight: Lionel Messi scored a sublime hat-trick against Barcelona opponent Real Betis on Sunday, including this exquisite chip of the goalkeeper.

At the end, Betis fans could do nothing but stand and applaud:

Trivia answers: Antowain Smith, Marc Edwards, David Patten, Mike Compton, Anthony Pleasant, Mike Vrabel, and Roman Phifer.