Monday, February 4, 2008

Bobby Knight resigns

Bobby Knight resigns!

If you don't follow college basketball you have no idea who Bobby Knight is.
He is the winningest NCAA men's division I basketball coach in history ("Knight won three national titles at Indiana, in 1976, '81 and '87. In all, he took the Hoosiers to 24 NCAA tournament appearances and reached the Final Four two other times.

During his tenure at Texas Tech, Knight was 138-82, and he led the Red Raiders to the NCAA Tournament in four of his six seasons, reaching the Sweet 16 in 2005. The Red Raiders are 11-8 this season and 3-3 in the Big 12, tied for sixth in the conference with Oklahoma.").

He is also a dickhead.

indystar.com
Please scroll down until you come to the middle of the article, subtitled Knight timeline: achievement and controversy:

"1976 -- Criticized nationally for pulling guard Jim Wisman off the court by his jersey.
July 1979 -- Arrested in Puerto Rico, charged with assaulting a police officer; convicted in absentia in August.
1980 -- Fires a starting pistol at postgame news conference to startle a Louisville newspaper reporter.
Feb. 23, 1985 -- Throws a chair across the floor during a loss to Purdue. Three technical fouls, ejection from the game, and national attention.
1987 -- Puerto Rico drops its efforts to extradite Knight.
March 1987 -- Bangs fist on scorer's table during an NCAA regional tournament game against LSU. NCAA fines IU $10,000 and reprimands Knight.
Nov. 21, 1987 -- Knight won't leave the floor after being ejected. He drew three technical fouls which resulted in the game being forfeited to the Soviet Union team. Knight later is reprimanded by IU.
April 25, 1988 -- Provokes outrage during an NBC interview with Connie Chung. In describing the experience of losing, he said, "I think that if rape is inevitable, relax and enjoy it."
May 1988 -- Knight considers taking a coaching job at the University of New Mexico, resulting in a rally where thousands urged him to stay. He declines New Mexico's offer.
March 25, 1992 -- Knight pretends to whip black player Calbert Cheaney, drawing national attention and protest from the local NAACP and other black leaders.
Dec. 7, 1993 -- Pulls son Patrick from the game and appears to kick him in the leg. Crowd boos. Knight later says he kicked the chair, not his son.
March 9, 1994 -- Butts heads with Sherron Wilkerson during a courtside huddle. Later both say it was accidental.
March 17, 1995 -- IU fined a record $30,000 after Knight berates an NCAA volunteer at a news conference following IU's first-round loss to Missouri.
March 1998 -- Knight pays a $10,000 fine, rather than accept a suspension from an NCAA tournament game. The fine resulted from degrogatory remarks Knight made to referee Ted Valentine during a February game against Illinois.
June 1999 -- Christopher Foster accuses Knight of choking him during an altercation in the parking lot of Nuestra Mexico, an Ellettsville Mexican restaurant. After much publicity, no charges were filed.
Oct. 12, 1999 -- Injures longtime friend Thomas Mikunda in a hunting accidentin Wisconsin. He was cited for failure to report a hunting accident and two violations involving hunting without a license.
Feb. 19, 2000 -- Knight berates his boss, Athletics Director Clarence Doninger, when Doninger tries to console the coach after a loss to OSU. Doninger later said he felt physically threatened by Knight. (This incident was not publicly known until The Star reported it March 30, 2000).
March 14, 2000 -- In a televised CNN/Sports Illustrated report, Neil Reed alleges Knight grabbed him by the neck during a 1997 practice, that Knight ejected IU President Myles Brand for talking during a practice and that the coach wiped himself with toilet tissue in front of players to make a point.
March 23, 2000 -- IU Bloomington Athletics Committee asks IU President Myles Brand to investigate Knight.
April 12, 2000 -- Videotape of 1997 altercation between Knight and Neil Reed airs on television.
May 10, 2000 -- Jeanette Hartgraves, secretary to the IU athletics director, tells The Star she felt physically threatened by Knight in a February 1998 confrontation in which he called her a "f------ bitch" and was advancing on her in anger. Clarence Doninger, stepped in to restrain Knight. Hartgraves also told of an episode in the late 1980s in which an angry Knight flung a potted plant against a wall, shattering a ceramic pot and a glass picture frame. Hartgraves said she was showered by glass and debris but not injured.
May 11, 2000 -- Two more accusations surface about violent behavior by Knight. WTHR (Channel 13) reports that Knight attacked assistant coach Ron Felling and threw him off a chair after overhearing Felling criticizing the basketball program in a telephone conversation. Other sources told The Star that Knight choked and punched IU's longtime sports information director, Kit Klingelhofer, in the 1970s, over a news release that upset the coach.
May 13, 2000 -- On the eve of a special trustees meeting to decide his fate, Knight issues a public statement promising to better control his temper.
May 14, 2000 -- The IU board of trustees meets in secret to decide Knight's fate.
May 15, 2000 -- At a news conference, university officials announce Knight will keep his job, but with a "zero tolerance" policy under which any new incident could bring about dismissal.
June 2000 -- Knight tells IU he will no longer help teach a class on coaching basketball.
Sept. 7, 2000 -- Knight grabs IU freshman Kent Harvey by the arm and lectures him on respect after hearing Harvey remark "Hey, Knight, what's up"? Harvey reports the incident to campus police and says Knight yanked his arm and swore at him. Knight denies he was rough.
Sept. 10, 2000 -- At a Sunday news conference, IU President Myles Brand announces he fired Knight after he refused a request to resign. Brand cited several instances< of unacceptable behavior by Knight since the zero-tolerance policy was instituted, not just the altercation with Kent Harvey, for his decision.
Sept. 12, 2000 -- In a live interview televised on ESPN, Knight says his accusers lied and university officials distorted their accounts of what happened."

What a piece of work this guy is eh? He kicked his son on national TV (his son played for him for IU's basketball team), he choked a player, calls women "bitches", does not hesitate to physically assault people.

But its all right, because you see, Bobby Knight kept winning championships and bringing money into IU because of the highly successful basketball program.


This link is his former players who played for the coach at Indiana University, who were interviewed for CNN news - a rough transcript

You see him, he can be the greatest, friendliest, nicest guy, but then all of a sudden, he can be the craziest, meanest, just the last person you want to be around.

NEIL REED, FORMER INDIAN PLAYER: He had me by the throat. I would probably say that little situation lasted about five seconds. I grabbed his wrist and started walking back, and by this time people, coaches Dan Dakich, Felling, grabbed coach Knight and pulled him away.

ABBOTT: Reed says that at a practice during his junior year in 1997, Knight confronted him for not shouting out teammate Larry Richardson's name after Reed had made a pass to him. Reed stood his ground with Knight, insisting that he had indeed yelled out Richardson's name. When Richardson sided with Reed, Reed says Knight attacked him.

REED: And at that point, the coach just thrust right at me, just came right at me, wasn't far away enough to where I couldn't see something coming, was close enough to just come at me, reach and put his hand around my throat. He came at me with two hands, but grabbed me with one hand.

MILLER: Did he actually choke him? I don't think he did, but he did put his hands around him. I thought that was too much. He shouldn't have done it, but he did.

REED: Call it whatever you want. And it doesn't matter what people call it, I call it choking. When you put your hands around someone else's throat, I mean, there is no other reason why you would.

MILLER: That's just his way of expressing himself. Some guys can put up with it and some guys can't.

ABBOTT: CNN/"Sports Illustrated" has corroborated Reed's account of the choking incident with three other people who were at practice that day. They declined to go on camera and asked that their names not be used, because they were afraid that speaking out against Bob Knight could damage their careers.

KNIGHT: Then I'm leaving and you (EXPLETIVE DELETED) guys will run until you can't eat supper. Now I am tired of this shit. I'm sick and (EXPLETIVE DELETED) tired of an 8-10 record. I'm (EXPLETIVE DELETED) tired of losing to Purdue. I'm not here to (EXPLETIVE DELETED) around this week. Now you may be, but I'm not. Now I am going to (EXPLETIVE DELETED) guarantee you, that if we don't play up there Monday night, you aren't going to believe the next four (EXPLETIVE DELETED) days. Now I am not here to get my ass beat on Monday. Now you better (EXPLETIVE DELETED) understand that right now. This is absolute (EXPLETIVE DELETED) bullshit. Now I'll (EXPLETIVE DELETED) run your ass right into the ground. I mean, I'll (EXPLETIVE DELETED) run you. You'll think last night was a (EXPLETIVE DELETED) picnic. I had to sit around for a (EXPLETIVE DELETED) year with an 8- 10 record in this (EXPLETIVE DELETED) league, and I mean you will not put me in that (EXPLETIVE DELETED) position again, or you will God damn pay for it like you can't (EXPLETIVE DELETED) believe.

His determination to run a clean program has enabled him to survive some notable public embarrassments: his being convicted in absentia of punching a policeman in Puerto Rico in 1979, throwing a chair during a 1985 game, and accidentally head-butting a player in 1994.
MANDEVILLE: In our locker room, there is a bathroom right attached to it, and he came out, pants down around his ankles and just wiped his ass, and said, "This is how you guys are playing."

REED: And he just stuck his hand out with that toilet paper after he had wiped and kind of showed everyone and then walked back into the stall.


Bobby Knight was and is a dickhead with anger control issues, who is dangerous to himself and others around him. I went to Indiana University during his tenure, and can tell you that the cult of personality of Bobby approached that of a rockstar and the man could do no wrong. That is why the respected if not beloved Indiana University president Myles Brand had so much trouble firing the coach - despite his violent, incredible behavior that would result in incarceration for other people, not just getting fired.

I mean in your job, you try to put your hands around someone's neck, or kick your son - see what the consequences are.

This man is the illustration of a bully reaching a position where he could be a bully with no consequences.

As an IU grad, all I can say to Bobby is - go fuck yourself. If I was a player for you and you pulled some shit on me like you did on those poor kids who played under you, who looked up to you, whom you abused, kicked, choked - lets just say the assistant coaches wouldn't be pulling you off of me - I would be the one stomping your nuts into the ground.

So why did Bobby "resign" from Texas Tech? Did he finally kill somebody?

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3 comments:

Crackpot Press said...

Boy that Bobby Knight...

all class.

Anonymous said...

I also studied at IU during Knight's tenure, and could never understand why people weren't more embarrassed by him. You used just the right word to describe him: dickhead.

I also found myself wondering, when learning of his "sudden" retirement, what might lie behind it...

effexor birth injury lawyer said...

Its quite ironic that I read an article on this subject just yesterday and it was completly different.