When Bob Knight resigned Monday it signaled the end of an era.
His era leaves you on one side of the fence or the other.
More importantly, his departure signals what might be wrong with the game.
Today’s players, before he or she gets to college, could play more games in a summer via AAU than he will play in a collegiate season.
The problem here is that losing has come too easy. There is always another game. With losing comes bad habits and, at times, inferior coaching.
As a result, you have a college coach that must spend too much time breaking bad habits. This takes practice time away from other elements of the game.
Bob Knight said he was tired. Forty-two years of coaching would make anyone a little weary. Today, though, it is harder. Bad high school coaching and players’ lack of commitment on and off the court and in and out of the classroom make coaching more difficult.
In Knight’s case, these things reduced the pool of players he wanted to choose from.
To Coach Knight, “risk” player meant whether that player could guard or set screens.
Knight wanted to focus on all things basketball, not if a player is a problem off the court or thought going to class was a crime. Knight had no time for that.
To say that Bob Knight was a perfect example of what a basketball coach should be is inaccurate. He can be gruff, difficult and downright mean.
One thing that should be mentioned here – in some cases it might have been deserved.
You see he had no problem making the media accountable for its actions. Want to talk about the game? Fine. How about we start with a good question?
Pick a sport, and I can produce someone who was either fishing or ill-prepared to have a discussion with him when it came to the game. His behavior could not always be defended.
The chair-throwing incident and physical confrontations with players are hard to defend. While some players might have deserved it, you cannot put your hands on someone else’s child.
While Bob Knight had his detractors, you know the ones who perceive him to be a bully, I find it strange that in 42 years of coaching someone didn’t champion the cause and try him on for size. Oh, I forgot. The normal response is “I wish he would have done it to me. I would have …”
Yeah, OK. The detractors are a small group if you look at the big picture.
As a basketball coach, you are charged with winning, developing young people for the future and graduating players. Oh, by the way, do all of this and not get in trouble with the NCAA.
For the record, Bob Knight is the all-time winningest coach in basketball. Most of his players have gone on to become successful in a myriad of professions and have been assets to their communities. Isiah Thomas may borderline on this one, but he is an Indiana graduate.
He has the highest graduation rate of any coach who has been around as long as he has.
The other coach with many Knight similarities is former Georgetown Coach John Thompson.
In case you are wondering, Bob Knight has never been in trouble with the NCAA when it comes to recruiting violations – just voicing his opinion from time to time.
When it comes to climbing all over a player, Bob Knight was an equal-opportunity guy.
The only color that was involved here was not black or white, just red for anger when you were not committed to what he was teaching.
The game will miss Bob Knight. He will probably not miss the things that surround it. What will be missed will be a maker of future contributors to society. I never really cared how many players Bob Knight sent to the NBA. I did care about what he meant to young people. Not everyone was able to play for Bob Knight. He is hard. He is tough. But he cared about student athletes and made sure they would be better providers for their families.
He is now tired and he will be missed. If you need more reasons, just check with one of his college graduates. Although, they seem to be harder to find.