Replies

Sorry, I can't resist joining in on this one. Full disclosure: I am an IU grad, although Knight came after I graduated. Sure Knight is a complex man; he wants things done his way and believes that if basketball is played his way, wins will inevitably follow. He also has standards that make him difficult to play for...takes a special kid to want to play for Knight. Neil Reed was a jerk, whose dad was a bitter Knight opponent - so fireworks were inevitable. Reed had no friends on that team and his team mates were glad to see him go. Typical of the media, what doesn't get covered is all the good Knight does for his former players and the University. He was a major driver in fund raising for IU's library and he personally funded a chair in IU's history department. At IU, Brand was the bad guy -- look at how he played that into big job as NCAA president. Knight is just one of those characters who is "out of time." Thirty or forty years ago, he would have been revered; but he's just too tough and uncompromising for our PC world.

I do not know the full story of Bobby Knight - just what the media shows. I know that he is a winning coach and a great recruiter. I also know that coaches like him are becoming rarer and rarer to find in any sport. The greatest coach of all time - Vince Lombardi - never had a losing season - ever - in anything he coached or was an assistant coach. He coached high school basketball and had a winning season - did the four corner stall before anyone ever heard of Dean Smith. If he had lived into the 70's as coach of the Washington Redskins, forget the Steelers being the team of that decade. However, for what we all know about Lombardi - how he motivated players, how he talked on the sidelines, how he treated players - like dogs as one former Packer put it - do you think the powers that be would want him around today?