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RIP Coach Knight

I remember seeing him on one of the Saturday morning fishing shows that used to come on ESPN2 years ago. He was like a different person, soft spoken and just loving it. He was a big fly fisherman I believe. Whether you liked him or not, it's always jarring at my age when one of the icons of my childhood passes away.
 
The first time I met Bob Knight was at a wedding of one of his players in 1979. He was polite and cordial, as would be expected in that situation. Just another person celebrating the wedding of a friend.

My next encounter was several years later when he was scouting two players. The father of one of those players was a close friend. He and I were sitting in the top row of the coliseum where we could comfortably stretch out away from the crowd. Knight joined us for the same reason and it allowed him an opportunity to speak further with my friend. The conversation quickly moved from basketball to other subjects. Just three men watching a basketball game, talking, laughing and enjoying themselves. Knight was just a regular guy that could speak on a variety of topics, told a good joke and was easy to laugh. The experience confirmed the stories we had heard from his friends in Bloomington.

I am sad to hear of his passing. He seemed like someone that would make a good friend if given the opportunity.
 
I moved to Indiana in 1986, at the age of 6. A year later, "we" won the national championship and it was amazing. My dad and I spent countless hours watching and discussing IU hoops. My dad is a history buff and had sent Coach Knight some books, I think on the civil war. Knight wrote my dad back thanking him and sent him two tickets to an upcoming game. I blead cream and crimson as a kid so the news of his passing hit me hard. By the end of his tenure at IU, I thought the game had passed him by and while there were plenty of reasons to boot him, IU picked a pretty minor incident. IU has had some decent teams over the years since, maybe two Final Fours, but they have never been as consistently good since they fired Knight. He is pretty much the antithesis of what I would look for in a coach today, but for awhile, he was the best in the game.
 
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."
 
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Sirdeacsalot said:
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."
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And they drafted Sam Bowie instead. Smooth move, Stu.
 
That 84 UNC woefully underachieved considering they had Jordan, Perkins, daughtery, and Kenny smith plus whatever high school all Americans dean had lined up. They didn’t win the ACC championship and they got bounced in the sweet sixteen of the ncaa tourney. That team should have gone undefeated but Dean was as too busy making Michael pass the ball .
No way should that Indiana team beat those guys … but it happened.
 
I met Bob Knight when I was a kid and we were living in Columbus, Ohio. At the time Knight played for tOSU and that team was the defending NCAA champion. We lived right across the street from Grandview HS, and I spent every afternoon on the outside courts playing pick-up games. I loved basketball. And one day an amazing rumor started to circulate on the court that the Buckeye basketball team was practicing in the Grandview gym right next door. Obviously, we had to go check it out, and sure enough we were able to get a peek at the end of practice through a window from a large hallway overlooking the court. Then we all ran downstairs and tried to get autographs from all the stars like Jerry Lucas, John Havlicek, Mel Noell (Sp?), Bob Knight, and the rest. I got a lot of them and then a last guy came out of the dressing room, heading for the team bus, and I ran over to him and shoved my paper and pencil with all the other players' autographs and asked for his. Without even looking at me he said, "Ah kid, you don't want my autograph, I'm just a coach." But, tagging along, I insisted. So, he finally stopped, took the paper and pencil, from my hand put it against the wall, and wrote, Bob Knight.
 
Sirdeacsalot said:
But I still think Knight was a dick.
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I think that was his public persona, but privately I've heard he was a great guy. When I was a kid, we went to Assembly Hall to check it out. It was the summer and no one was there so we were just looking outside. One of knight's former players and current assistants Dan Dakich happened to be leaving as we were outside and approached us and asked if we wanted a tour. He took us all around the building and into the locker rooms and it was one of my greatest memories as a kid. He spoke glowingly of Knight as a coach and a mentor and said yes he was tough but he let you know that he cared about you even after you were long gone. I've listened to countless interviews from other Indiana players stating the same thing.

Yes he was an asshole but he was their asshole who would do anything for them.
 
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