When Isiah Thomas recalled his brother's tense moment with Bob Knight over the veteran coach's KKK remark
Isiah Thomas and Bob Knight made history together, leading the Indiana Hoosiers to the national championship in 1981. Thomas' move to Indiana almost got derailed, though, after his brother and Knight had a major disagreement about the legendary coach's KKK remark during his recruitment process.
Thomas recalled that particular incident in a chat with Shannon Sharpe during the eighth episode of "Club Shay Shay," which premiered on YouTube on Nov. 14, 2020. Sharpe brought up that dispute when he asked Thomas what his thought process was when he decided to move to Indiana to join the Hoosiers.
“Well, Coach Knight was recruiting me to come to Indiana, in Bloomington, Indiana. And the next town over from Bloomington was Martinsville, Indiana. Klan started there,” Thomas said (Timestamp 1:18). "Klan, as you know, has a big presence in the state of Indiana.
"And so my brother, he asked Coach Knight, ‘Well, you know, when Junior's down there, because that's what they call me in the family, if something was to go down with the Klan, who's going to take care of him?’"
Isiah Thomas thought Bob Knight gave a funny response, but his brother wasn't amused by the coach's reply.
"Coach Knight said, ‘Well, if we're winning, they will.’ We just kind of laughed it off. My brother didn't think that was funny."
“And so they got into a little back and forth. And then my brother said, ‘Well, hey, we can take this outside.’ And Coach Knight stood up, took his jacket off, rolled up his sleeve. He’s like, ‘yeah, we can take this outside.’"
Thomas shared that his mother wasn't bothered one bit by the back-and-forth between his brother and Knight, and she was the main reason why he joined the Indiana Hoosiers:
"Coach Knight stood up, took off his coat, started rolling up his sleeves and the whole house was like, 'No, no no! We can't fight!'" Thomas said. "Then everybody is heated, really heated. You look over there again and my mom is sitting there. I was like, 'She likes (Knight).'"
How Isiah Thomas and Bob Knight's Indiana won the NCAA title in 1981
The Indiana Hoosiers entered the 1981 NCAA Tournament as the third seed in the Mideast regional bracket. They reached the Final Four in style, beating sixth-seeded Maryland, seventh-seeded UAB and ninth-seeded Saint Joseph's by an average of 27.3 points.
Bob Knight and the Hoosiers booked their place in the NCAA title game after beating top-seeded LSU 67-49 in the national semifinals. Indiana then captured its fourth national championship after beating second-seeded North Carolina 63-50 in the finals of the 1981 March Madness.
Isiah Thomas captured the NCAA Tournament's Most Outstanding Player award after he recorded 23 points, five assists and two rebounds in the win over the Tar Heels.