Time for the Dark Knight to lighten up!
On September 10, 2000, Indiana University President Myles Brand had seen enough, and did the unthinkable. He fired the basketball coach who brought the school 3 NCAA championships. The week prior to his dismissal for what Brand called ”a pattern of unacceptable behavior”, Bob Knight grabbed a student by the arm to lecture him about manners. Although the student was disrespectful in saying, ”Hey Knight, what’s up?” Brand said Knight violated the school’s zero-tolerance policy that he received the previous spring, which included no ”inappropriate” physical contact with students. Fast forward to December 2009, and the man who could not keep his job because of ”inappropriate behavior” actually had the onions to single out John Calipari for ”inappropriate behavior” saying, “We’ve gotten into this situation where integrity is really lacking and that’s why I’m glad I’m not coaching. You see, we’ve got a coach at Kentucky who put two schools on probation and he’s still coaching. I really don’t understand that.” It would be impossible to fit all of Knight’s “inappropriate behavior” into this blog, but to further illustrate how hypocritical Knight is for singling out Calipari, let us mention a few: there was the tape of the IU practice in 1997 that showed Knight with his hand around the neck of Neil Reed. Not exactly role model material. Who can forget Knight throwing a chair across the court in a game against Purdue in 1985 to protest a referee’s call, or Knight’s comments during an April, 1988 interview with Connie Chung? When the NBC reporter asked Knight how he handled stress, the coach said, “I think that if rape is inevitable, relax and enjoy it.” Predictably, Knight claims his comments were taken out of context. In 1994, Knight “head-butted” Hoosiers player Sherron Wilkerson, who had just sat down after coming out of the game. Knight blamed the contact on severe back pain he was experiencing at the time which he says flared as he bent over to speak to Wilkerson. It is never Bob Knight’s fault. I sense a pattern. Coach, do us a favor, say good night and leave the building already. Haven’t you bullied enough people?
December 20th, 2009 at 9:53 PM
Bobby Knight has a great point in talking about the integrity of the game and John Calipari. Knight has come under scrutiny for his comments. Most saying who is Knight to question integrity. He choked a kid at Indiana, threw chairs during games, made obscene comments to several interviewees, head butted kids who came off the floor for foul trouble. Yes it may seem very hypocritical for a person who has done these things to question another’s integrity, but the last time I checked Bobby Knight had coached at three different universities, and not once did he have a team, or put a school, under probation. Something that Calipari has done twice. So why it may sound hypocritical, Knight has every right to question the integrity of a coach who has done something Knight never did, and has done it twice.