Isiah Thomas and Joe Dumars’ secret language was hoodrats!”: When Charles Barkley hilarious called out the Pistons legends for peculiar body language

Charles Barkley and Reggie Miller called out Isiah Thomas and Joe Dumars for their ‘secret language’ with one another, with Chuck calling it ‘hoodrats’. 

The ‘Bad Boy’ Pistons were one of the most intimidating teams to go up against in the history of the league. The collective of Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars, Bill Laimbeer, Dennis Rodman, and many more had the entirety of the NBA worried about how physical the game was going to get when squaring off against them. 

Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls ran into the Pistons in four straight postseasons, losing to them three times in a row before finally sweeping them in the 1991 ECF. Isiah Thomas was the engine that ran the late 80s and 90s Detroit Pistons and Joe Dumars was his right hand man in terms of getting a bucket on one end and a stop on the other.

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The two had seemingly developed a ‘secret language’ with one another when it came to defensive assignments. IT and Dumars would communicate with one another on which players to let past the perimeter and into the paint and vice versa. 

Charles Barkley has a special name for the secret language that Isiah Thomas and Joe Dumars. 

In an edition of ‘Open Court’ where legends the likes of Charles Barkley, Isiah Thomas, Reggie Miller, and Chris Webber were present, they were asked about which opponents they hated to face. Reggie Miller started to talk about Pistons and referenced the ‘secret language’ that Isiah Thomas and Joe Dumars with one another. 

While Miller was explaining what how the guard duo communicated, Charles Barkley butted in and hilariously said the language is called ‘hoodrats’, resulting in everybody in the room bursting out in laughter.

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Miller’s story on Isiah Thomas and Dumars is yet another indicator of how meticulous the Pistons were during their title contention days. Many are of the sentiment that they merely ‘beat guys up’ when on the floor but roughing up players on opposing teams was merely the icing atop a carefully thought about offensive and defensive system.