A Bobby Knight Retrospective
With Knight’s sudden departure from Texas Tech, it made me wax nostalgic. Not for his tantrums or diminishing returns, but for the times in the past that I’ve talked about this extremely talented, but extremely emotionally undisciplined, sports legend.
Here’s two.
The Long, Dark Knight: I’ve got to say that I am officially sick of hearing about Bob Knight, Bob Knight’s new commercial, Bob Knight’s potential new jobs, Bob Knight’s firing, and Bob Knight in general. Maybe it’s worse if you live in Indiana, but could we find another friggin’ thing to discuss on the news, like maybe the budget or the Seattle quake or something?
One of the more annoying things to happen recently was that at an honors assembly, a guy who played for IU during the ’70s went off on a big rant about the unversity, the president and all other things that actually had to do with running an institution of learning because they fired Knight. Let’s be realistic; he had it coming. I know that some people quibble about the exact incident that broke the camel’s back, but you have to expect that all the shit could only be piled so high for so long.
That reminds me. Knight’s defense for grabbing that kid was always that “he wasn’t respecting me.” Isn’t that the same kind of rationale that a gang member uses when he hauls off and caps somebody? “He wasn’t respecting me.” We wouldn’t let that gang kid get away with that. Why should we have let a teacher?
The Dark Knight Returns: Anybody watch the Bobby Knight movie this past weekend? I didn’t. I live in Indiana. I saw the live version.
What baffles me is that the cult of Knight still exits around here. His infantile tantrums had obscured his coaching achievements many times over the years, but nothing more accurately showed a man out of control than the whole Neil Reed controversy. When it comes down to it, the man lied. He lied. He said there was no neck-grabbing, and he lied.
And even though I know most of us tell little lies to ourselves and others, this is different. In a position of respect and authority, he lied. And he was caught on tape. And his response? Suing. I think that if you look that situation up in the dictionary, it says “smokescreen”.
Today: You know, that’s the thing. I realize that people will miss the brand of basketball that he taught. I realize that they’ll miss the fact that he really did try to influence the education of his players in a positive fashion. But at a certain point, the negatives outweigh the positives. And without question, the angry laying of hands upon a student athlete, no matter what the reason, should be grounds for dismissal. He may have had an impact. He may have been a legend. But I, for one, am glad that he’s gone.
