The Boston Celtics moved All-Star point guard Isaiah Thomas to the Cleveland Cavaliers earlier this week in a trade that netted them fellow All-Star point Kyrie Irving in return.

During a recent question-and-answer session at the Basketball Hall of Fame, Celtics head coach Brad Stevens voiced a tremendous amount of praise toward the 28-year-old, according to Chris Forsberg of ESPN.

“Here's what I'll tell you: What [Thomas] did in Boston the last two-and-a-half years has been incredible. I said earlier what he's meant to me, what I think of him, how great he's been in the locker room, what kind of teammate he's been. Those are all really, really, really hard decisions. That's the hard part about being a professional basketball coach. I've stared at the wall many times and thought, ‘Man, having guys in college for four years and knowing exactly when they're coming and going is a pretty good way of doing things.' So that's a tough one.”

In his short tenure in Boston, Thomas quickly latched onto the role as the face of the franchise, helping lead the team to three straight playoff appearances, which included the team's first Eastern Conference Finals appearance in five years.

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Thomas was the primary catalyst to the offense that saw him develop into one of the premier scorers in the league, earning him a pair of All-Star selections and an All-NBA Second Team nod. He's also coming off a career-best campaign where he averaged a career-high 28.9 points, which was only the second-highest mark in franchise history after Hall of Famer Larry Bird.

All of this made it an extremely difficult decision to move on from Thomas, but the opportunity to grab a player with similar ability that is a few years younger, was simply too much to pass up on. Irving has a chance to latch onto the same leadership role that Thomas had and pick up from that point on.

Ultimately, there is nothing but appreciation and gratitude stemming from the organization for what Thomas helped the team accomplish during his tenure.