RIP Bobby Knight

[BitterYoungMatador2]

Man could coach 'em up.

All I got.

His shirts always looked ironed.

 

[Noholesin1]

I have no idea if this is a true story or not, and too many years have passed for me to remember where I heard it. Knight was once asked what he would have done if he hadn't been a coach. He answered, "I'd be a political cartoonist. That way you only have to come up with one idea a day. No, scratch that. I'd be a sportswriter; then I wouldn't have to think at all."

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

Most of us learned to play basketball in third grade gym class then we moved on to other things.

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

Most of us learned to play basketball in third grade gym class then we moved on to other things.

This is an A+ post.

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

Have to admit that Knight and I got along great, and I got a lot of awesome interviews from him. This is possibly because on our first encounter (not too long ago, 1981 Final Four), I told him that when reporting I stopped my thoughts of good and evil and divided the world into interesting and dull. Lord knows he wasn't dull.

Apropos of mostly nothing, but like anyone here 50 or older, I'll always remember the 1981 national championship game for being played hours after Reagan was shot. My Mom didn't think it should be played. At seven, I didn't agree. Of course, now I realize she was right, like she was about everything.

 

[HanSenSE]

On top of all that's been said, he had (at least according to the AP and Dan Wetzel obits) a 100 percent graduation rate.

 

[tapintoamerica]

On top of all that's been said, he had (at least according to the AP and Dan Wetzel obits) a 100 percent graduation rate.

Creative and selective math.

 

[Chef2]

Bilas.
Jay Bilas: I liked the Bob Knight I knew

I love this.

In 1984, after coaching Michael Jordan on the gold-medal-winning U.S. Olympic team, Portland general manager Stu Inman called Knight for advice on the upcoming NBA draft. Knight counseled Inman to take Jordan, calling Jordan the best basketball player he had ever seen. Inman told Knight the Blazers already had Clyde Drexler and needed a center. Knight responded, "Then play Jordan at center."

 

[dixiehack]

On All Saints Day. Talk about an untimely death.

 

[CD Boogie]

What an interesting, storied legacy. You can watch the 1976 Indiana documentary on Showtime and then the "Last Days of Knight" 30 for 30 and get the amazingly good and the equally amazingly bad.

If anything it showed that it's very rare for a legendary coach that's indentified with a program to leave said program under peaceful good terms. More times than not they tend to be pushed in a fashion not complimentary to their body of work.

Bill Belichick, come on down.

Season on the Brink was a great book. The guy was a brick. Buh bye.

 

[swingline]

Knight was friends with bricks like La Russa and Parcells. Again, fork him.

 

[matt_garth]

I didn't get bitched out — as a barely 20-year-old undergrad I was too timid for that. But I watched with a mix of awe, fear and bemusement when he did his thing at a Big Ten media day in the early '80s.

He was late and didn't bring any of his players — every other coach did. Each coach went from table to table, answering questions, but that arrangement ended as soon as Knight walked in.

I can't remember the first question (I think it was about the relative inexperience of his team), but I remember the response.

"Stupid forking question. Next forking question."

We'd have to rent out all 17,000 seats in Assembly Hall for all of us club members to meet up.