When Indiana legend Isiah Thomas commended HC Bob Knight for having the "courage to coach" him

Isiah Thomas played under the legendary Bob Knight at Indiana from 1979 to 1981 and went on to have a successful career in the NBA before venturing into coaching.

In a December 2022 appearance on "The Pivot Podcast," Thomas commended Knight for his ability to coach players with various personalities, including himself, while also sticking to his principles:

"Here's what I'm gonna say now that I'm older," Isiah Thomas said. "I'm so happy and glad that Coach Knight had the courage to coach me and to have a confrontation with me, right?

"He wasn't trying to be my friend. I didn't know the talent that I had and I didn't know the type of person that I would grow to be. But I knew at 17, I wasn't the person that I wanted to be or the type of player I was going to be."

Thomas continued, comparing the past to the present day:

"Like, the coaches now, they want to be your friend. They don't want to coach you right. And to really get the best out of what you have, you know somebody's got to pull it out of you.

"Coach Knight, I appreciate him because he wasn't afraid to have a confrontation with me. Did that make me better? Yeah, a lot of times he was wrong, and I went 'I want the type of guy you can holler and scream at.' And like I said, I'm from Chicago, so it's like you get up in my face hollering and screaming that means okay, we getting ready to do something right."

Isiah Thomas was a key player of the Indiana team that won the national title in 1981 under Bob Knight. On the back of winning the championship, he declared for the NBA draft, where the Detroit Pistons selected him with the No. 2 pick.

Knight coached at Indiana from 1971 to 2000, and won three national titles with the program. He was fired from IU for being too aggressive with the players.

After taking a break from coaching for a year, Knight took up a job at Texas Tech from 2001 to 2008. Before coaching Indiana, he had a six-year stint with the Army Black Knights. Knight died on Nov. 1, 2023.

Isiah Thomas was "thrown out" of practices by Indiana HC Bob Knight

Former NBA star Isiah Thomas - Source: Imagn

Bob Knight was known for his stern coaching methods. He also didn't hesitate to kick players from practice if they weren't up to the task. In December last year, Thomas recalled how the late Indiana coach kicked him out of practice for not paying attention to his defensive side of the game.

"I got threw out a couple of practices," Thomas said on the "Come And Talk 2 Me" podcast. "He threw me out of practice, and not only that, where he and I butted heads was that he believed in making the defense work.

"So, when we got the rebound, I was just pushing it, getting a layup; now we back on defense. He wanted that defense to work… and when we got into it, I was like, 'Coach, if we fast break, we can break their will that way. And he was like, 'You can't tell me how to coach the team.'"

Nonetheless, Thomas said that Knight's attention to detail and perfectionist nature made him one of the best coaches in history.

After working under Knight at Indiana, Isiah Thomas played his entire pro career with the Pistons, and won two NBA championships with them before retiring in 1994.