<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">AUBURN HILLS -- The weather wasn't the only thing chilly when Louisiana native Joe Dumars arrived in Detroit 21 years ago this month. Detroit Pistons trainer Mike Abdenour picked him up at the airport, and transported Dumars to a Marriott hotel on 12 Mile and Telegraph Rd. As they pulled up to the hotel, Abdenour told Dumars that his new teammates would be playing the next day at 11 a.m. at Oakland University. Then Abdenour left. "When he said Oakland University, I didn't know whether I had to go to California or what," Dumars recalled. "I didn't know where nothing was. I mean, nothing." The next day, Dumars received a chilly reception from his teammates. However, a few baskets and steals by Dumars soon broke the ice. "From day one, you knew you had to prove yourself every day," Dumars said. "It wasn't like it was a smooth transition where you came here and everyone met you with open arms. Basically, it was arms folded and like, `OK, show us what you can do.' " Proving his worth would be a recurring theme throughout Dumars' NBA career, which has landed him a place among the game's greatest ever -- in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Dumars, who spent his entire 14-year career with the Pistons, will be one of six Hall of Fame inductees this weekend. He will join former NBA players Charles Barkley and Dominique Wilkins, University of Connecticut women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma, Italian basketball coach Sandro Gamba and former Big East commissioner David Gavitt for the induction ceremony on Friday night. "It's great to see something like this happen for Joe," said former Piston teammate Adrian Dantley, who Dumars credits for helping him adjust to the off-the-court demands in the NBA. "He did his job well, stayed out of trouble, was a good teammate, and left it at that. That's what I really like and respect about him. It's great to see a guy like him in the Hall of Fame." The early years As a youngster, it was clear Dumars would be a standout athlete. However, it wasn't supposed to be in basketball. The youngest of seven children, Dumars seemed destined to follow in the football-playing ways of his five older brothers. "He was definitely a good football player coming up," said his brother, David Dumars, who played in the NFL, CFL and USFL. "He was big and strong for his size, had good hands. He was a really good punter, too." So good, David recalls Joe finishing second in a pass, punt and kick competition. Football may have been in Dumars' blood, but his heart was set on being a basketball player. "I was determined to do something to create my own niche," Dumars said. "When you're the youngest of seven kids, you don't have a niche. Everything is hand-me-downs, from clothes to what you played -- everything. So I wanted to separate from that and do something on my own." He soon developed into one of the best players in the Natchitoches, La., area, and was part of an AAU national championship team that included future Hall of Famer Karl Malone and John "Hot Rod" Williams and Benoit Benjamin, who both played in the NBA. Proving his worth Dumars was intent on making a name for himself, and to do that, he had to take on the best players around. At the time, that was 6-foot-3 guard Johnny Jones of nearby DeRidder, La., who later played at Louisiana State University. Both recall a high school game in which they each scored more than 40 points before Jones' team came away with the victory. "He didn't say much, but he had plenty of teammates who did enough talking for him and for themselves," said Jones, entering his sixth season as the head basketball coach at the University of North Texas. "But not Joe. He just kept shooting, making plays and handling himself very business-like out there." </div> Source
