Brad Stevens: Isaiah Thomas Sent 'Long Text' Message To Explain Emotional Comments

BOSTON (CBS) -- There was a bit of controversy this week in Celtics land, after Isaiah Thomas questioned the coaching decisions of Brad Stevens in Monday night's loss to the Los Angeles Clippers.

Stevens joined Zolak & Bertrand on Wednesday afternoon, and as expected, the coach diffused any issues.

"I didn't really put much thought into it. I didn't even really register it until it became more of a talking point in the media and it was brought to my attention," Stevens said. "Soon thereafter I got a long text from Isaiah. ... When you get interviewed right after a tough loss or even when you get interviewed right after an emotional win, sometimes the emotions speak. And so, I understand there's frustration, I don't lose a lot of sleep over it."

Stevens added: "The bottom line is as a coaching staff and as a team, we all have to just get back to the drawing board and do our jobs the best that we can. I think that's something that if you have to address it, you address it. But hopefully if you're a coach, you're not the one initiating that conversation. I think that's a lot less effective than hearing from Isaiah shortly thereafter, which I did."

Stevens said he doesn't take it personally when players are emotional about losses.

"He's a competitive guy," Stevens said of Thomas. "I think that's one of the things that I really like about Isaiah, is every loss really hurts. We play a lot of games. Good teams -- really good teams in this league lose 30 games. So you have to be able to move on from it, but at the same time, it has to hurt. It has to sting. So I love that part. I love the fact that the losing hurts. And with that comes an emotional response once or twice. And that's OK. It's not as big of a deal to me as maybe it is with regard to the way it's being talked about and everything else. My focus is on, how can we play better?"

Listen to the full interview below:

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