Isiah Thomas Shared Wild Story About Bobby Knight Ready To Fight His Brother Over KKK Remarks

Isiah Thomas and Bobby Knight

Getty Image / Justin Casterline


Before becoming one of the greatest NBA players in history, Isiah Thomas was a 1981 NCAA Champion with the Bobby Knight-coached Indiana Hoosiers.

Thomas was born and raised in Chicago. So a 4-hour drive to Bloomington, Indiana wasn’t too crazy. But the Indiana Hoosiers weren’t offering the same ‘perks’ other schools were offering during the recruiting process.

Isiah Thomas recently sat down for a Boardroom segment where he told a wild college basketball recruiting story about Bobby Knight, the KKK, and his brother nearly fighting Coach Knight.

Isiah described his family as ‘dirt poor’ so when schools came offering ‘money, cars, and homes’ it was hard to imagine turning that down.

Thomas says one coach actually came to his house with a briefcase full of cash. That coach told the family there was $50,000 on the briefcase and if he played for that college they’d get the money. Isiah says they were so poor and had never seen money like that in their life. Saying “there could have only been $1,000 in that briefcase” and they wouldn’t have known the difference.

But then came Coach Bobby Knight from the Indiana Hoosiers. Coach Knight told Isiah Thomas’ mother he was “only gonna offer (her son) 3 things: A) he’s gonna get a good education. B) I’m gonna teach him everything I know about the game of basketball. And C) he’ll be a gentleman.”

Here’s where things got testy between Isiah Thomas’ family and Bobby Knight

Isiah Thomas says he was looking at his brothers who were looking back at him like “okay well, we’re not going to Indiana” because there wasn’t a bag or briefcase full of cash, or a house.

The conversation moved to ‘how is it gonna be at Indiana’ and Isiah’s mom asked Coach Knight about the KKK. She said “the Klan is in Martinsville, Indiana. If my son gets into any type of issues, who’s going to protect him?”

Coach Knight said, “well, if we’re winning Mrs. Thomas, the Klan will protect him.”

Isiah Thomas’ brother didn’t think this was a joke. Isiah said “he looked over at his brother and he’s lit” and that “now he’s ready to fight.”

His brother then spoke to Coach Knight, saying “well, if you want to do something now, we can take this outside.”

Isiah says Coach Knight “got up, took his jacket off, rolled up his sleeves and said ‘yeah, we can go outside.'”

Meanwhile, Isiah Thomas’ mother is sitting there watching this all unfold. He is looking at his mom for her reaction and he says she was sitting there smiling and nodding. Isiah says “I’m like, ‘oh no, she likes him.'”

And the rest was history.

Isiah Thomas became such a star for the Indiana Hoosiers that students put “And a little child shall lead them” from the Book of Isiah (Old Testament) on bed sheets during games. He was nicknamed ‘Mr Wonderful’ at Indiana. And led the Hoosiers to a Big Ten Championship in 1980, the Sweet 16, and a year later won Indiana’s 4th National Championship.