YouTube Gold: The Great Joe Dumars

A true great, Dumars doesn’t really get his full due.

Back in the day, everybody hated the Bad Boy Pistons. Bill Laimbeer? Biggest jerk in the history of the NBA. Rick Mahorn? Just a bully in the paint and was widely disliked too. Isaiah Thomas? He was so disliked that the players on the Dream Team basically kept him off the roster (accounts differ on whether it was Michael Jordan or Magic Johnson, but they hated him too).

And don't even get started on Rodman, who was the king of weird in his day and a master of mind games.

There was one member of that team that everyone respected though, who came across as a true gentleman. That man was Joe Dumars.

When Dumars left Shreveport for McNeese State, no one knew much about him and McNeese had little to no baskeball credibility.

When he left, he was taken with the 18th pick in the 1985 draft. Some of the players drafted ahead of him were John Koncak, Joe Kleine, Keith Lee, Alfredrick Hughes, Blair Rasmussen and Uwe Blab.

Michael Jordan called Dumars the best defensive player he ever had to deal with and when Detroit paired him with Thomas, backcourt magic happened.

As you’ll see in this video, Dumars was always a quiet player but was also quietly brilliant. His more flamboyant teammates got the most attention but Dumars just got the job done.

After his player career ended he went on to become a widely respected NBA executive and is currently the president of basketball operations for the New Orleans Pelicans.

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