Indiana is going to induct Bob Knight into the IU Athletics Hall of Fame, on Nov. 6
Quote:BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Former Indiana University basketball coach Bob Knight will be inducted into the university's athletics Hall of Fame nearly a decade after he was fired for violating a zero-tolerance policy imposed by then-IU President Myles Brand.
Indiana's Saturday announcement that it would honor Knight is the first move to bring the two sides together since Knight was fired in 2000 for what school officials called a "pattern of unacceptable behavior."
Hopefully this is just a ruse, so they can catch him and extradite him to Puerto Rico.
Knight is immensely poplular in IU land amongst fans and alumni. When I first moved here in 04, I was amazed at how many people sported Texas Tech apparel in support of Bob Knight. Antics aside, most schools would honor a coach who won 3 NCAA championships and produced graduated rates amongst the highest in the NCAA.
(08-22-2009 07:47 PM)fourcorners Wrote: [ -> ]Knight is immensely poplular in IU land amongst fans and alumni. When I first moved here in 04, I was amazed at how many people sported Texas Tech apparel in support of Bob Knight. Antics aside, most schools would honor a coach who won 3 NCAA championships and produced graduated rates amongst the highest in the NCAA.
Then again, any school with any integrity or standards of behavior would have sent a jackass like Knight packing very early on.
There is simply no excusing the way he treats people, but especially people who work/play for him or with him.
(08-22-2009 09:38 PM)jws Wrote: [ -> ]Then again, any school with any integrity or standards of behavior would have sent a jackass like Knight packing very early on.
There is simply no excusing the way he treats people, but especially people who work/play for him or with him.
In his second year at IU, he took them to their first Final Four in 20 years. In his fifth year, he won a national championship. He went on to win them three national titles in a 12-year span. Barring downright criminal activity, a coach with that sort of record never, ever gets fired quickly.
IU basketball was a total disaster through most all of the 1960's. Bob Knight was the guy who returned them to the top almost instantaneously after he took over in '71. He was their savior. How do you fire your savior when he's the best coach you've had in decades?
He did nothing illegal. He just got out of control over time. It's incredibly hard to fire that kind of coach after he's chalked up multiple championships. Any program anywhere could face the same problem today.
So it comes down to what Faustian bargain a school is willing to make to win a championship. Some schools would probably hire the Devil himself (er, no intended referrences to the Dook mascot)
Knight's behavior was, as best I can figure, at times subhuman. He also won championships. Had he been less of a beast he wouldn't have been Bobby Knight.
I have two very good friends who are IU from way back...one attended and the other graduated. They love basketball and they love Indiana and its state university.
Thus they despise booby knight and were ecstatic to see him tossed.
(08-23-2009 05:28 AM)Ahriman Wrote: [ -> ] (08-22-2009 09:38 PM)jws Wrote: [ -> ]Then again, any school with any integrity or standards of behavior would have sent a jackass like Knight packing very early on.
There is simply no excusing the way he treats people, but especially people who work/play for him or with him.
In his second year at IU, he took them to their first Final Four in 20 years. In his fifth year, he won a national championship. He went on to win them three national titles in a 12-year span. Barring downright criminal activity, a coach with that sort of record never, ever gets fired quickly.
IU basketball was a total disaster through most all of the 1960's. Bob Knight was the guy who returned them to the top almost instantaneously after he took over in '71. He was their savior. How do you fire your savior when he's the best coach you've had in decades?
He did nothing illegal. He just got out of control over time. It's incredibly hard to fire that kind of coach after he's chalked up multiple championships. Any program anywhere could face the same problem today.
He threw a potted plant at his 63 year old secretary, for gods sake! He choked, kicked and generally harrassed and intimidated both his players and his staff. He treated everyone working under him like dirt and treated peers who were not in his inner circle awfully.
He demanded respect and civility of others, but did not hold himself to that same standard, and he regularly brought shame and ignomy to IU with his arrogance and bullying, throughout his career.
He was an arrogant, bullying jackass from day one, and the only difference between the glory years and when he was tossed was that when he got tossed, he was losing regularly.
Both Knight and IU are poster children for hypocrisy.
I think that if I were to see a basketball coach choking my kid, he had better hope the cops get to him before I do.
Anybody think Knight will show up to accept his honor?
Pure and simple, knight is scum
He won 3 National Championships and is the winningest men's coach in history. He wasn't paid to be a gentleman, he was paid to win.
Of course he's a scuzzball.
(08-23-2009 04:31 PM)tarheelbillie Wrote: [ -> ]Anybody think Knight will show up to accept his honor?
You think it's a trap?
Fred believes Bobby Knight is a saint compared to the bottom-feeding scum that is John Calipari.
(08-23-2009 08:52 PM)Vid Wrote: [ -> ]He won 3 National Championships and is the winningest men's coach in history. He wasn't paid to be a gentleman, he was paid to win.
Honoring for achievement is different from honoring for being "Father of the Year" or something. Knight is being inducted for what he achieved at IU. Nothing more.
I can think of a couple of other coaches who will eventually be enshrined in their school's "Hall of Fame" who are right up there with Knight in the "scuzball" category. Those coaches will still be honored with, in all probablility, little if any discussion about their "scuzy-ness".
Antics aside, Nixon was a good president.
Interesting thread. I don't know how I feel about Knight. I see both sides of this. I do tend to think that when you're talking about a college/university and not the pros, that character issues should have more relevance. I don't think I'd want my kid playing for him, but nor do I think he's the monster some here seem to think he is.
This sort of issue comes up in the pros all of the time, obviously. I know the pro football HOF specifically limits voters to only considering on-field achievements. I think MLB is different.
Monster? Maybe not, Elmo is a monster and I like him, so is the big Cookie guy.
Sub-human cretin?
That's the ticket.
(08-25-2009 08:26 AM)Salty Dog Wrote: [ -> ] (08-25-2009 07:51 AM)marsbennett Wrote: [ -> ]I'm with Bobby!
Love it!
What this soundbyte didn't reveal is the approximately 3 minutes of raucous applause Knight received from the Assembly Hall crowd after he made this statement. As I said, most IU people love Bob Knight. Living 40 minutes from Bloomington, I think I can safely gauge the sentiment of most IU folks. I wonder how many people here are aware of all the good, charitable things Bob Knight did?
My problem with Bob Knight more than anything was the level of hypocrisy. Knight expected - no demanded - absolute compliance with his rules by his players, yet Knight complied with no rules other than his own. This is his greatest detraction, IMO, moreso than his antics, which really showcased the fact that Knight was accountable to no one except himself.
anybody that didn't kow what they were getting into with him before they did so is just palin dense, I mean plain dense. nobody was forced to play or work for him, and some athletes grow up expecting to be treated the way he treats athletes. if you don't you can play elsewhere. the general ideas are that a.) nothing you encounter when you take the field is going to scare you because you've already made it through far worse and b.)you had better execute as told or you won't like the price
(08-25-2009 01:27 PM)Supersport Wrote: [ -> ]anybody that didn't kow what they were getting into with him before they did so is just palin dense, I mean plain dense. nobody was forced to play or work for him, and some athletes grow up expecting to be treated the way he treats athletes. if you don't you can play elsewhere. the general ideas are that a.) nothing you encounter when you take the field is going to scare you because you've already made it through far worse and b.)you had better execute as told or you won't like the price
Frankly, it amazes me how much success Knight had with his screamer approach to coaching. I guess it takes a certain kind of kid to thrive under those conditions.
I most certainly was not that kind: I still consider basic training to be the most miserable time in my life, because I cannot stand someone all up in my grill screaming at me.
fourcorners and Supersport have pretty much captured how the IU community and IN generally feel about Bobby. There's a lot of that opinion in IL also and, IMHO, in KY, Ohio, MI and Wisc.
Simply math, folks.
Take the number of minutes Knight spent coaching practices and games at IU. Subtract the number of minutes reportedly spent "screaming". Deduct 10 minutes for each temper tantrum (chair-throwing etc). Do
not count the continual replays done by DookieV or networks in general! Add in 10 minutes for each
charity work done.(That doesn't mean simply writing a check, but actual, physical work.) Then add 5 minutes for each NCAA coach you can think of who "screams" at players, add 10 minutes for each reported "I'll take away their...." instance. Now, which is greater; the number of minutes spent positively or the number of minutes spent negatively.
