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It's funny how we all like to dwell on all of the bad constantly on every issues. I think at this time for our histroy sake it's about time we give credit where credit is due. When you think of Bob Knight he is not a person where you think "Yeah, he's an OK guy" It's either fight or flight with your feelings, your either love or hate the man but regardless you have to face that facts of his accomplishments alongside the personality. That will always be and will never change.
I have heard more things called about BMK than I have about any other person, bully, child abuser, chair thrower, can't coach anymore, hasbeen, nutts, the list goes on, but let thy cast the first stone.......
Having said that, love or hate him, I think his good outweights the bad immensely and I'm so thankful that he was at Texas Tech when he retired and not IU. As I state before I can't stand Pat Knight.
Bleeding Crimson
"When my time on earth is gone, and my activities here are passed, I want they bury me upside down, and my critics can kiss my ass!"-RMK
The moment that made me cringe is seeing Bob Knight put on that Texas Tech sweater and say "this is the most comfortable red sweater I've had on in 6 years"
I hated the way he made everyone outside of Indiana perceive IU while he was there and I hated the way he bashed IU when he was kicked to the curb. We're 18-3, tied for first in the Big Ten and have the greatest soap opera game in the last 5 years on Thursday yet we're wasting time talking about a douche bag who bad mouths IU every chance he gets...unbelievable.
Calling Bob Knight a "douchebag", the same coach that won 3 National Championships and went to five final fours in Bloomington, is insulting. Knight had a nearly 100% graduation rate, coached just one NBA All-Star and had an a NCAA infractions record as clean as a whistle.
You talk about this year's team being 18-3? Yeah that's great. It's also great that we have NCAA sanctions hanging over our head for the 2nd straight year. It's also great that we now have a head coach that is perceived to be a cheater. Remind me, how many times were we in trouble with the NCAA while Knight was "devaluing" your degree at IU?
I love Indiana and I love this year's team and I do support Sampson so i don't want to come off as an 80-year old Knight loyalist (24-year old IU grad). Say what you want about Knight, but he has more integrity in his pinky finger than Sampson has in his whole body. To insult him and praise Sampson and this year's 18-3 start is hypocrisy at its finest.
look in the mirror, because the douche bag is you.
....and Bob's still a giant douchebag.
really, take responsiblity and stop blaming other people if you can't get a job.
did your salary increase dramatically after he was fired?
that comment alone tells me what hurts your degree...YOU.
Idiots like you.
Sigh.....
I don't care that you don't like Knight, just don't be a hypocrite. You can't degrade one guy (Knight) for "living by the standards of the lowest common denominator" and ignore Sampson's transgressions.
I had a bit of a temper when I was younger, and I've mellowed, but maybe I identified with Knight because of his unpredicability.
I can't comment on Robert Montgomery Knight as a coach or a person...because I don't know him that way. I just know what we saw on TV. I think his results speak for themselves as a coach. As a person, there are people who will testify under oath that he is a class act in many ways. Just ask Landon Turner.
However, based on your extremely articulate responses, it's pretty obvious who is lacking class.
PS ,, Happy fishing Bobby!...
I had a great vantage point of him, sitting on the bench, launch a fully loaded cup of water up, over his head and about 15 rows deep into the lap of a random, unsuspecting Assembly Hall onlooker.
I was an Air Force ROTC student and one of about 20 seniors that would, each year, go to his office for an hour-long discussion about leadership, fortitude and integrity.
From the outside looking in, Bob Knight was a case-study in human emotion. He generally detested the media and the fact that he knew that they were trolling for an outburst, baiting him, really, to put their story on the front page if (and ofter when) he would boil over.
But for all of the bad on the exterior, behind the scenes, Bob Knight was the greatest "x and o" coach of all time. Behind the scenes, the life lessons learned by those around him did far more good than bad. I do think it was time for him to leave Indiana. Sadly, like many relationships, his with IU had become one of dysfunction. Both parties were to blame, though. I mean, placing a ridiculous "zero-tolerance" policy on a figure like Bob Knight was doomed from the start. And to have his departure sealed because of his response to a freshmen student who showed a total lack of class himself represented the worst way to send off the best coach IU had ever seen
I graduated from IU in 1987. I started there on the same dorm floor with guys like Steve Alford, Todd Meier and Marty Simmons. Indiana is my team, and Bob Knight is my coach. I wish him well.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/si_blogs/baske...
The Boiler Donkey is classic. I had never seen that until today.
So how will I remember the general? As the man that made IU basketball fun... i was not an IU fan before i enrolled and after AJ Guyton hit a three to beat Temple early in my freshman year, i was hooked for life. I had never heard an arena so loud and that's because the General made IU b-ball important and exciting...
I would have wanted to play for Coach Knight if I was good enough at basketball, and I think he has done far more good than bad...but it's sad that this is a debate, and a lot of that rests on his actions.
The John Woodens and Coach K's of the world will be beloved by their schools and their fans forever. It's unfortunate that Bobby Knight will be viewed as a controversial figure.
Coach Knight did/could not recruit well in his later years as a coach and he experienced a level of mediocrity he was not accustomed to that probably turned him off as much as anything. Mediocrity was something he had a terrible time dealing with, be it players, referees, administrators, or just people in general. His son said it best in that he was tired and it was time. But OOOOOOOHHHHHHH what a time he gave us as fans. Most of it was great, some not so great. If you were to talk about the man in positives and negatives, only the foolish would spend more time on the negatives.
Thanks for the memories, Coach.
Maybe he stayed too long, maybe he lost his coaching touch. I don't know. For all the good that Knight has done at IU (and he has done a lot), for me, it will never overshadow the public image that Knight routinely trotted out for the rest of the nation to witness.
The angry, angst-filled, sometimes-violent Knight that we saw far too often in his later years, unfortunately is the Knight I will remember.
I heard him once quote Lincoln and pretty much summarizes all of the why leave now stuff: "When it comes time for me to lay down the reigns of this administration and I am left with one friend and that friend lies within myself I will be satisfied." Hail to the General, Hail to the Dragon. Go Hoosiers
Coach Knight did things his way, and he made sure you knew it. That is how he'll be remembered, and quite frankly, I think that's how he wants to be remembered. He won't be remembered like Coach Wooden, Coach Smith, or other who are thought of only fondly. He probably won't even be remembered as a winner first and an asshole second. To a lot of people, he'll simply be that old asshole basketball coach. Based on how he lives his life, he deserves to be remembered just that way, too.
I love the way that he coached. I hate the way that he treated the media. I love the way that he helped build IU's library and help kids graduate. I hate the way he constantly contradicted himself, holding himself to different standards then his kids. (Pat Forde wrote a great article about this.)
I loved some things about him, but hated other things. Overall, I think there's no question that his good outweighed his bad, but it's not as black and white as "love him or hate him"
But I'll also remember him as a Hall of Fame coach, a friend to almost every player that played for him, a friend to many of the coaches around the league, a guy who recruited fairly, graduated players, and basically built the library that I study in.
But most of all, I'll remember him as the guy who when my mother sent a letter and a card for him to sign for my 10th birthday, returned it, signed, in less than a week.