When Indiana legend Isaiah Thomas recounted his mom's relationship with former Hoosiers HC Bob Knight

NBA legend Isaiah Thomas made a name for himself as an Indiana Hoosiers star before he turned professional. Thomas played under coach Bob Knight for the Hoosiers and the two struck up a rapport that lasted until the latter's death in 2023.

On an episode of the House Of Hoosier: An Indiana Basketball podcast in 2020, the former Detroit Pistons star told a hilarious story about his mother, Mary Thomas and coach Knight, and how they built a relationship over the years.

"When You talk about her and coach Knight, they had a great relationship," Isaiah Thomas said. "A unique relationship. One time, we in the middle of the game, during halftime we go into the locker room and you know how coach Knight walked out the back door and then he'd come back in? He walks out and my mom comes through the other door. And I'm like, 'Dude, you gotta get out of here. You can't be in the locker room.' She came in and she was like, 'Hey, y'all gotta do this, gotta do that.'"

"And then coach Knight walked in and when he walked in, I'm like, 'Oh no!'" Thomas said. "Dude, he stopped and he stood there and said, 'Tell 'em, tell 'em.' And from that day it's like, my mom and coach Knight for whatever reason and still to this day, coach goes in and out and everytime we talk, he always asks me how my mom is doing. And he always has stories about my mom."

Isaiah Thomas's recruitment by Bob Knight

Isaiah Thomas was highly recruited from St. Joseph High School, Illinois and the legendary coach Bob Knight visited his home in Chicago to sell him his vision. During the recruitment, things almost went wrong as one of Thomas's brothers was concerned about the Ku Klux Klan issue in Indiana and whether his younger brother would be safe in Bloomington.

Knight made a joke which almost descended into a fight until the situation was calmed down when Thomas's mother intervened and insisted that her son join Knight's famously discipline-oriented team. Thomas revealed what happened during his recruitment during a 2023 episode of the All The Smoke podcast.

“I thought coach Knight gave a pretty slick answer… He was like, ‘If we’re winning, (the Klan) are gonna look out and if we’re losing…’ My brother was like, ‘Man, I don’t like that,'" the basketball legend said. "'What do you mean they’re gonna take care of him? We take care of junior.’ And the conversation quickly got heated. You know, the voice raised and everything else.”

Isaiah Thomas joined the Hoosiers in 1979 and quickly became one of the best players in the country leading Indiana to two Big Ten championships and the 1981 national championship where he was named the Most Outstanding Player. He declared for the NBA Draft where he was picked No. 2 overall by the Detroit Pistons. He went on to have a Hall of Fame career and won two NBA titles.