Bob Knight could do nothing that would surprise us anymore, not after all his seasons in the spotlight. He filled them with so much bombast and brilliance, with so many antics and accomplishments, we knew anything was possible.
Still, his sudden resignation Monday as the coach of Texas Tech arrived with all the unexpectedness of a squall stirring up on the plains. It came without warning and that made it a shock even after Knight, who Sunday night talked for 90 minutes with mentor and Hall of Fame coach Pete Newell, explained his decision.
“There’s a transition that’s going to take place here from me to (son) Pat (his designated successor) and I’ve dwelt upon this all year long — about what would be the best way to do this, and how it would be best for him and for the team and for what we could do in the long run to make this the best thing for Texas Tech,” Knight told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.
“I didn’t know, I’ve never really known, when I was going to step down from this job. My thinking was that for Pat and this team — most of which is returning — the best thing for the long run would be for Pat and his staff to coach these remaining 10 games and [for them to] get an understanding, get a real feel for each other.”
That explanation surely made sense enough. Yet the suddenness of Knight’s move was also in character for so feral a personality, for a genius who forever remained unfettered and insisted always on doing things his way.
That phrase, we know, is certainly a cliche now. Yet just as certainly it still fits him as perfectly as it once fit Frank Sinatra, the crooner who long ago seduced it into our collective consciousness.
Knight himself seeped into the basketball consciousness in 1965, when he took over at Army as a brash 24-year-old, and rarely has he not demanded its attention. An outsized personality, he found his home on center stage and there he frolicked while never bothering with the pretenses or the niceties that could have muted his wildness.
Always he operated outside normal bounds, which made him different from you and me, and with a single-mindedness that resulted in both admiration and opprobrium. His approach not only delivered the three national championships he won at Indiana and his 902 career wins, the most for any Division I men’s coach, it also left him free to throw chairs and to rage at players and to produce the litany of questionable acts that ultimately resulted in the Hoosiers firing him in the fall of 2000.
In public there was never anything predictable about him, not when he won, not when he lost, not even when he dealt with a mass of media that he could alternately charm and chide. That is how, surely, so many will remember him as he walks away at the age of 67.
Yet we recall him more in private moments, like the time he was propped up against a wall in the bowels of a gym in November 1991 in Springfield, Mass. Already, even way back then, he had his three national titles and seven outright Big Ten titles and 25 winning seasons in the 26 he had coached.
He was 51 then and long an outsized figure whose very name engendered extreme reaction. That is why, with all calm around him, he was asked what motivated him to carry on even after so much triumph and tempest.
“Oh. I don’t know. Uh …” he began, and then he paused. Finally, looking down, he explained, “If I’m going to take you fishing, I want to take you fishing where we can catch some fish. If I’m going to coach a basketball team, I want it to look as if it’s been coached. I want it to look as if it knows what it’s doing. I want it to play well. I want players to feel that having played basketball was very important to them. So I work to get that done.”
The conversation meandered some after that and then, suddenly, he was remembering a talk he had with Hall of Fame coach Joe Lapchick shortly after Knight had taken over at Army. “Is it important to you that you’re liked?” Lapchick asked.
“Well, yeah, by certain people. I think it would be important to me that you like me,” Knight replied.
“Then we went on to discuss players,” Knight said, still propped against that wall. “His whole … approach was if you make decisions on whether you’re liked or not, then you’re not going to coach very well. That’s the way I’ve coached from that day on.”
That is surely the way he both coached and carried on in life, and that is how we will remember Bob Knight. He may not always have been liked. His unpredictability made that certain. Yet his teams looked as if they were coached.
They respected the game, and he did too.
– – –
‘I guess you can never be surprised at some of the things Bob does. I don’t always approve of his methods, but his players for the most part are very loyal to him.’
— Former UCLA coach John Wooden
More Top Picks Cowin E7 Pro
“He thought about doing it a year ago, but he didn’t want people to think he was just staying for the record. So he kind of pushed himself to go one more year.”
— Knight’s son and successor, Pat Knight
‘I am very happy for coach Knight because he got to start and finish his career exactly the way he wanted.’
— New Mexico coach, ex-Indiana star Steve Alford
‘There are Hall of Famers and there are Hall of Famers. … I’m not so sure there are many on the same shelf he is.’
— Indiana coach Kelvin Sampson
Knight’s days
A look at some of the more notorious moments of Bob Knight’s storied career.
1979 — Knight is charged and later convicted in absentia for hitting a policeman before practice at the Pan American Games in Puerto Rico.
1985 — Tosses a chair across the court during a game vs. Purdue, prompting his ejection, one-game suspension.
1988 — In an NBC interview with Connie Chung, who asked how he handles stress, Knight says: “I think that if rape is inevitable, relax and enjoy it.” He explains he was talking about something beyond one’s control, not the act of rape.
1991 — Bars a female AP reporter from the locker room, saying it was inappropriate for her to be there and also against university policy. All reporters subsequently were barred from the locker room.
1992 — Gives a mock whipping to Calbert Cheaney, a black player, during practice for the NCAA West Regional, offending several black leaders. Knight denies any racial connotations and notes players gave him the bullwhip.
1993 — Is suspended for one game after a sideline tirade in a victory over Notre Dame in which he screams at his player/son, Pat, and kicks at him. When fans behind the Indiana bench boo, Knight turns and responds with an obscenity.
1994 — Head-butts Sherron Wilkerson while screaming at him on the bench but says it was unintentional.
1995 — Is reprimanded and fined $30,000 by the NCAA for an outburst at a news conference at the NCAA tournament. Upset that an NCAA media liaison erroneously says he would not attend the news conference, Knight lashes out at him.
2000 — Is investigated in March by Indiana after former player Neil Reed says Knight choked him at a practice in 1997. He’s later suspended and fined. Is accused on Sept. 7 of grabbing a student by the arm, cursing and lecturing him about manners after the coach was addressed “Hey, Knight, what’s up?” Three days later, Knight’s fired for violating “zero-tolerance” policy and a “pattern of unacceptable behavior.”
2003 — Launches into a profanity-filled tirade after an ESPN reporter asks about his relationship with former player Steve Alford, who also was participating in the interview.
2004 — Gets into a loud verbal spat with Texas Tech’s chancellor at an upscale Lubbock grocery store. Is reprimanded — but not suspended — by the university.
2006 — Approaches player Michael Prince, using his hand to push his chin, apparently in an effort to get him to look up while talking to Knight during a timeout.
2007 — In November, a Lubbock man accuses Knight and his hunting party of firing birdshot too close to his home and videotapes an argument with the coach.
— Tribune news services
%%
Knight’s record
SEASONS SCHOOL W-L PCT.
1965-1971 Army 102-50 .671
1971-2000 Indiana 662-239 .735
2001-2008 Texas Tech 138-82 .627
TOTAL 902-371 .709
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS
1976 Indiana 32-0 1.000
1981 Indiana 26-9 .742
1987 Indiana 30-4 .882
KNIGHT’S MILESTONE VICTORIES
W SCORE DATE
100 Army 64, Navy 50 2/27/1971
200 Indiana 93, Georgia 56 12/19/1975
300 Indiana 83, Northwestern 69 2/7/1980
More Top Picks Tinted Glasses For Kids When Theyre Worth Trying
400 Indiana 81, Kentucky 68 12/8/1984
500 Indiana 92, Northwestern 76 1/14/1989
600 Indiana 75, Iowa 67 1/6/1993
700 Indiana 70, Wisconsin 66 3/5/1997
800 Texas Tech 75, Nebraska 49 2/5/2004
880* Texas Tech 70, New Mexico 68 1/1/2007
900 Texas Tech 68, Texas A&M 53 1/16/2008
* – to become NCAA’s winningest men’s coach
RK, COACH W RK, COACH W
1. Bob Knight 902 7. Lefty Driesell 786
2. Dean Smith 879 8. Lute Olson* 780
3. Adolph Rupp 876 9. Lou Henson 779
4. Jim Phelan 830 10. Jim Boeheim* 766
5. Eddie Sutton* 800 10. Jim Calhoun* 766
6. Mike Krzyzewski* 794 x – active
%%
———–