photo: weallbe.blogspot.com

For years, he contentedly stood in the shadows. Unlike his more celebrated teamates at the time, he didn’t walk through the b-ball corridors with a fancy nickname or a respected pedigree backed up by a blue blooded institution and some fawning media.

Far away from the bright lights, he morphed from a good high school player into an incredible college performer. And when the spotlight and eyes of the world finally cast their admiring gaze upon him in the pros, he’d completed his metamorphisis from role player to one of the finest all-around talents and greatest defensive players the world ever witnessed.

And through the entire journey from the hoops backwoods to the crescendo of the sport, he never stopped being “Boopie” to those who knew him way back when.

Joe Dumars III – aka “Boopie” to his family and friends in his hometown of Natchitoches, Louisiana – was originally destined to follow in the footsteps of his five older brothers on the gridiron. The Dumars boys were all accomplished on the defensive side of the football at Natchitoches Central High School. His older brother David went on to play pro football in the Canadian Football league, the USFL and with the New York Jets in the NFL.

A standout Pop Warner cornerback, Joe was switched to quarterback in junior high school. The position change eventually led to another change.

“He got hit by a kind of big-sized boy,” his mother Ophelia told Sports Illustrated’s Bruce Newman. “When Joe came home he said, ‘That boy hit me so hard I saw stars. I don’t believe I want to play that game anymore.’”

His father, Big Joe, proceeded to affix the rim of a bicycle wheel to a wooden door that he’d sawed in half. At the home-made hoop and court in the family’s backyard, Dumars would battle against his brothers. More often, though, he’d spend hours alone with the ball, perfecting his handle and jump shot to the soundtrack of chickens clucking away in a nearby coop.

“The light from a liquor store turned off at midnight, so that’s when my imaginary games ended,” he once told the Associated Press. “In the summer, I bet I spent about six hours a day out there shooting — mostly by myself. My mom and dad always knew where I was because they could hear me dribbling.”

He would battle his older brother Mark and stew over coming out on the losing end.

“Did I ever know when Joe lost?” his mom Ophelia said to Joanne C. Gerstner of the Detroit News. “He would be so angry because he did not like to lose. Oh, no. He would come in the house and sit by himself and be mad. I don’t think Joe takes losing any better today — he still hates it.”

photo: forumserver.twoplustwo.com

Joe got bizmark at Natchitoches Central High School, but received no big time scholarship offers. If LSU coach Dale Brown had been on top of his game, he would have recruited two of the greatest talents the state of Louisiana ever produced from the high school class of ‘81 in Dumars and Summerfield’s Karl Malone.

Imagine how LSU might have fared with the addition of The Mailman and Joe D to the Hot Plate Williams, Derrick Taylor and Jerry Reynolds crew that took the SEC title in ‘85. They might have crashed the Big East’s Final Four festivities captured by the cinderella Villanova crew instead of falling to a then little known big man at Navy named David Robinson in the first round of the NCAA’s.

photo: mcneesesports.com

Joe D took his game to McNeese State in Lake Charles where he came out the gate blazing. In ‘82, he was the Southland Conference’s Freshman of the Year. Over his celebrated college career, he became the only player in the Southland’s history to earn four First-Team All-Conference and All-Tournament awards.

While wallowing in college hoops’ netherlands, his accomplishments did not go unnoticed. He was named a Sporting News All-American and received an invitation to the prestigious ‘84 Olympic Trials. Joe D was one of the lesser known players to casual fans, but scouts knew the deal. Along with other talents (i.e. Terry Porter, John Stockton and The Mailman) from small time schools that didn’t make the team – not because they weren’t deserving, but more so because of coach Bobby Knight’s unique preferences – the trials proved that he could play with anybody.

The Round Mound of Rebound, Charles Barkley, summed up the feelings of those players who might have been initially intimidated by the press clippings of studs like Patrick Ewing, Chris Mullin, Michael Jordan and Wayman Tisdale (all celebrated All-Americans who were all but assured spots on the team) when first walking into the cauldron of those hallowed competitive battles.

“That Olympic trials let me know that I could play at a higher level,” Barkley said in Filip Bondy’s book, Tip-Off. “Those guys you see on TV, they’re the same as you. You don’t know that until you get there and start playing with them.”

Indeed, Dumars and the other guys who got cut agreed with that sentiment. Going back to McNeese for his senior year, he scorched for 26 points per game and left the school as one of the greatest scorers the NCAA has ever seen.

While in college, there was one basketball poster taped to his wall. It was of Isiah Thomas, his future backcourt mate and the man that would one day present him for induction at the Basketball Hall of Fame.

photo: ultimatenba.com

The legendary Mr. Will Robinson, who was scouting for the Pistons, insisted that the team select Dumars with the 18th pick in the ‘85 draft. Some limited minds in the organization simply envisioned him backing up Isiah Thomas for some quick breathers, but Robinson saw a diamond already primed to sparkle beyond some paltry back-up minutes.

The team limped out to a 16-21 start during his rookie year in ‘85-’86. With Joe D inserted in the starting line-up, the baby Bad Boys went 30-15 for the rest of the season and earned a playoff birth. Three years later, they were in the ‘89 Finals against Magic and the L.A. Lakers.

photo: chicagotribune.com

The epiphany exploded unto our consciousness during that series, shattering popular perceptions as Dumars stepped out of the “role player” shackles of public opinion. He provided a glimpse of things to come in a regular season game against Cleveland when he dropped 17 consecutive points. But for the most part during his pro career, he did a masterful job of assimilating into the team construct.

What better way is there but to announce your arrival at the apex of your profession than having the spotlight of the World Championship upon you? During the Pistons’ sweep, Dumars led the phenomenal three-headed backcourt monster of Isiah and the Microwave, Vinnie Johnson, that strangled the Lakers. Joe D averaged 27 points per game while shooting a remarkable 58% from the floor.

photo: www.zona131.com

In game 3, he lit up the Laker “D” for 21 points in the third quarter, including a preposterous run of 17 straight. The L.A. braintrust took to calling him the “quiet assassin.”

Sports Illustrated’s Bruce Newman wrote, Each time Dumars buried another shot, L.A. general manager Jerry West and his assistant, Mitch Kupchak, turned in their seats at the Forum and stared at each other, their eyes wide with alarm. “That’s how you win when you’re the home team,” said Kupchak, “by trading baskets until the other team begins to miss. But we couldn’t break their backs, because Dumars wouldn’t miss. We kept waiting for him to miss. You could feel the whole building waiting. But it was as if he had forgotten how. He was scary.”

check joe d explode on L.A. in game 3

He was a unanimous choice as the MVP of the 1989 NBA Finals, at the young age of 25, on each ballot turned in by the media.

Throughout his illustrious 14-year career, Dumars was selected to six All-Star games and four All-Defense teams. In addition to the marvelous stats he compiled, his most glaring accomplishment might have been the acknowledgement by Michael Jordan as the greatest defender he ever faced.

And although he was a crucial cog in the “Bad Boys” machinery, he became synonymous for his low key demeanor and outstanding sportsmanship. Today, the NBA’s award for upstanding behavior is officially called the “Joe Dumars Trophy”.

After retiring as a player, he joined the Pistons front office. He took control of all basketball decisions and transformed a team that won only 32 games in the ‘00-’01 season. When the Pistons won the 2004 NBA Championship, Dumars became only the second named Finals MVP who later architecturally engineered a title through his role as the franchise’s President of Basketball Operations.

The other was the incomparable logo himself, Mr. Jerry West. Today, despite passing on Carmelo Anthony in 2003 in favor of Darko Milicic, he’s known as one of the most astute management minds in the league, as evidenced by Detroit’s mind boggling run of six straight Eastern Conference Finals appearances from ‘03-’08. That feat is even more remarkable when considering that he assembled the discarded pieces from other teams to make it happen.

Dumars returned to school, even after being recognized as a league’s Executive of the Year, and attained his Bachelor’s Degree in 2008.

photo: blog.ingamenow.com

“Completing my degree is something I always wanted to do for my parents, for my family and for myself,” he said at the time. Now that, ladies and gentlemen, is a role model superb, so full of action his name should be a verb!

For some, the playground rests in the belly of mammoth housing projects, with the sounds of urban life providing the soundtrack. For others, like Joe Dumars – who shot his jumpers to the noise of chickens clucking in a nearby coop, the playground is one’s rural backyard, made from a spare bicycle rim and door that’s been sawed in half. Regardless of location, the effects are remarkably the same.

Along with Isiah Thomas and Vinny “The Microwave” Johnson, Joe D formed one of the most magnificent backcourts the world has ever seen. And standing alone, Dumars was a singular gift in the pantheon of basketball greatness.

THE PLAYGROUND IS NOT THE PROBLEM. IT IS THE SOLUTION!