Letters to the Editor
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Bobby Knight is a hero
A throwback for sure. A father figure who molded and shaped his young men. So out of touch with the touchy feely allergic to everything post modern everyone gets a trophy we take our lead from the fathead nuns and ninnies on ESPN soapopera of sportsparazzi who cares if the players smoke crack and beat they baby mamas era we live in now. Golly Garsh! D'ya think it's relevant that nearly every single Bobby Knight student athelete graduated?
We need more Bobby Knights or, we can hire more Super Nannies when our players act like children on PCP.
Go ahead throw rocks. I bet you hate your dad too.
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Roger:
I think it is Bobby Knight who throws things.
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how's the job market for knight players?
Bobby Knight coached my favorite player of all time, in Isiah Thomas, and unfortunately I can't stomach what Isiah's doing with his career now, either.
If Knight had coached more players who achieved Hall of Fame status in the NBA, would their college diplomas, and the education that comes with those diplomas, have made them better citizens within the world of professional sports? Do his athlete-graduates go into their non-NBA workplaces and become paragons of professionalism and fair-mindedness? Or are they so beat down after being coached by Knight that they end up taking shitty jobs and bullying their secretaries or other professional underlings?
Probably not a whole lot of stats on that one.
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The Knight Errant...
Good riddance to a foul, vulgar, boor who stained the name of America wherever he went. At the Pan Am games in the 80s he pulled his pants down and exposed himself to security guards who asked him for ID and of course “Mr” Knight obliged in the only way he knew how.
As if that weren’t proof enough of his unique brand of American manhood, upon his arrival at the airport, after arguing with the airport staff about everything from window seats to extra beer on board, he once again pulled his pants down and shot a moon at the gate attendants as he entered the jetway to the plane.
Americans do not need to stoop too low to further degrade their image abroad and Bobby earned a PhD in crassness a long time ago.
Go in silence at last.!!!! No one but other proviincial clods will miss or applaud you.
Oh, yeah, I heard his students "graduated" from IU, but could they read or count or know what "Miranda rights" meant?
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Knight is not a hero
The man uses violence to intimidate not only his players, but even random students at the schools he is an employee of. You don't need to be a violent bully to graduate a large number of your students.
Don't believe me?
Two words.
Joe Paterno
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What would it mean if
Texas Tech goes on an eight game winning streak?
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King you really nailed this one
The salient point of your column is one that I have been making about Knight for years-- that if you are going to preach discipline as your mantra then you might want to practice some discipline once in a while.
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Roger Apocalypse
I did not hate my Dad. But then, he wasn't an asshole.
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Not to turn this into a pile-on
But I like how Roger considers allergies to be symbols of weakness and deficient character.
"Just eat the peanuts! Be a man, you little pansy!"
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The man could flat out coach basketball
The fact that he didn't coach any NBA all-stars after Isiah, but did win an NCAA championship after Isiah (which is, oddly enough, the goal he was hired for, not to be a free farm team for the Association) proves it. His teams were better than the talent he had. He was the last man to coach an undefeated NCAA championship team; Dale Brown had four NBA first round draft choices, including Shaquille O'Neal and Chris Jackson, on a single team and didn't win diddly-squat.
Yes, he had a temper. He certainly didn't get a lot of slack in the media because of it. His personality is a lot like Barry Bonds, but while Bonds is under indictment, Knight can go watch his son coach with pride.
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Good riddance, indeed!
Bob Knight just held on until he got the NCAA record. He does not deserve to wipe up the sweat on the court of games coached by the likes of John Wooden, Phog Allen or Adolph Rupp; nor that of Dean Smith, Clarence Gaines or Mike Krzyzewski.
In case you can't tell, I'm from North Carolina, where we take our hoops seriously.
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Nice column
Excellent! This is one of the best sports columns I've read on Salon and is the tribute that Knight deserves after 30 years of boorish and obnoxious behavior. When it comes to legendary college basketball coaches, I'll take Dean Smith or John Wooden any day.
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Hey North Carolina anon
We can also tell you're from the South where some folks extol the virtues of that Nazi Adolph (fitting) Rupp.
And to the guy who compared Knight to Bonds: interesting point you bring up. If Knight were black and behaved like he did he'd have been in jail after about 100 wins. Seriously. Not fired. Incarcerated.
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roger apocalypse
"D'ya think it's relevant that nearly every single Bobby Knight student athelete graduated?"
Did you graduate? From High School? The second sentence of your letter is missing about twenty hyphens (they look like this: - ). I had to read it 3 times to make sense of it. And it is postmodern.
Knight is an asshole, and he abuses his players like you abuse grammar and punctuation.
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Reply from NC Anon
OK, I listed Rupp because of his total on the win list. However, I would rather talk about UNC and Charlie Scott.
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Thanks, King
Thanks, King for some well needed perspective on Knight. Pretty refreshingly damning (and bang on) piece, in the face of the countless hagiographies and hosannas that are going out to him right now.
But who was more undisciplined than Bob Knight?
This is exactly right. I never understood the argument that Knight was a great teacher of young men. After all, he consistently acted like a classless, adolescent boor, who could never keep his composure. What, exactly, is that supposed to ingrain in his charges? I mean, I used to think his shtick was funny, but rewatching a number of his greatest hits, which have come back to light as a result of his retirement, I can only shake my head in wonder that this guy isn't absolutely mortified by his absurd and embarrassing behaviour.
I also like your point about Knight not getting prime recruits. I never thought of it that way, but of course: who would want to play for such a jackass? Nobody who can write their own ticket, that's who.
And, aside from your mention, lost in the accolades for Knight is the fact that he quit on his team. He. Quit. This is exactly the kind of thing Knight would deplore in anyone else.
So, yeah - good riddance indeed. Go back to hunting, Bob. I hear Dick Cheney's looking for a hunting partner...