The Last Days of Knight

[Nidaros]

I am bored so in my Emails was an ESPN+ email about watching Christian . I clicked it on and there were other choices. One of the choices was about Bobby Knight. Bobby is about my age of 78 years. I always admired him, but after watching this documentary of Robert Abbott a CNN sports writer I am not so sure. One thing we have in common is a destructive temper. My average career is a testimony to letting anger get the best of me. It is amazing how important basketball is to the state of Indiana and Indiana University. In 35 years as head coach, many good players left because of Coach Knight. Here is the link.. It may require a subscription to ESPN+ to allow it to play.

https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/...2-ab13547a3661

[Nidaros]

Bobby Knight is a real example of good and evil. SDSU has never had any coach that closely resembles Knight.. In terms of basketball, every SDSU coach that has been in my era as a fan was very much a class act. Bob Knight could be that if he wanted to be, but often he choose anger to represent himself. A man who understood the game. Possibly one of the greatest basketball minds, but anger often got in the way.

[Nidaros]

One more interesting detail from the documentary. Abbott mentions the movie Hoosiers and the strong coach Dale played by Gene Hackman. Abbott contends that the fictional coach in the movie was patterned after Bobby Knight.

[GoJacks]

I have read several books about Bobby Knight over the years. I always felt if I was good enough to play college basketball, he was the coach I ideally wanted to be coached by. However, I also believe I do not have the mental toughness to be coached by him.

[da_coach]

He was a great coach. Not good, not very good, but great.

However, he was an abominable person, and his success just made him more arrogant.

Yes, he treated many people with kindness. Everyone is nice to some people, or MOST people.

But there was an arrogance, and a 'bullying' aspect to Knight.

The positives don't outweigh the negatives. Larry Bird went home and worked on a garbage truck rather than play for him.

The bathroom incident at halftime was real. Back about 10-15 years ago, there was an audio clip of him losing his mind over something...that was real too.

He was not a good person.

He was a fabulous basketball coach.

[Nidaros]

He was a great coach. Not good, not very good, but great.

However, he was an abominable person, and his success just made him more arrogant.

Yes, he treated many people with kindness. Everyone is nice to some people, or MOST people.

But there was an arrogance, and a 'bullying' aspect to Knight.

The positives don't outweigh the negatives. Larry Bird went home and worked on a garbage truck rather than play for him.

The bathroom incident at halftime was real. Back about 10-15 years ago, there was an audio clip of him losing his mind over something...that was real too.

He was not a good person.

He was a fabulous basketball coach.

Interesting take, I could not help think of the great UCLA John Wooden and what a contrast. Recently I saw a reunion picture of Karim Jabbar leading Coach Wooden apparently on the court holding Coaches hand in order to maintain balance. This picture says a great deal about coach-player relationship. Wooden was very old school but greatly respected. Ten years will we see the same for Coach Knight. I don’t think so.

[jackdaniel]

Jerry Finkbeiner ,former coach of WBB for ORU reminded me a little of Bobby Knight in that he could lose control of his temper at times, as evidenced by his (with a few anyway) basketball kicking episodes, just replace a chair with kicking a basketball.He's permanently retired from coaching now having retired from being head coach of WBB at Utah St, bless his soul. Most of the time was a great person from what I could gather. There can be a lot of pressure applied to coaches at the highest level, some handle it better than others, as is the case with a lot of high stress jobs. Good for him he decided to take care of his health above other things.Contrast him with Chris Paul, former coach of IPFW, who could take a lot from opposing fans , and it all would just slide off his back like water off a ducks back.Just the difference in people I imagine.