My Bob Knight Story

In May 2015, I met the iconic Bob Knight. The occasion was a Becker’s conference in Chicago. Knight, along with ex-Notre Dame Head Football Coach Lou Holtz, was part of the featured speaker group engaged to educate and entertain throughout the two-day event. The two held court (pun intended) for over an hour, spinning tales from their glorious career.?

Let’s back up just a bit. Most folks know Bob Knight for the scrapes he got into with Indiana University leadership, his feuds with reporters and for tossing a chair across the court during a game against Purdue.?

What is often overlooked is how accomplished he was as a basketball coach and how impactful he was on the lives of his players. Knight won three National Championships at Indiana and his 1976 team remains the last team to go undefeated through a season. Over his career, he graduated virtually every student he recruited. He always looked at his players as students first, basketball players second. His mother was a second-grade teacher. He said that the greatest gift he ever received was his Library Card. He devoured books as a kid, learning everything he could about everything that interested him.?

Along the way, he developed a firm belief on how things should be done. He personally recruited his players and saw to it that they all graduated. He took their success in life personally. He thought it was his responsibility to see that they graduated.?

Bob Knight was what, in days past, was dubbed “A Man’s Man” who would give you his truth good and hard and let you deal with it. Meek, mild and politically correct were words that were never applied to characterize him.?

He never respected John Wooden, the UCLA coach who won 10 National Championships, because Wooden never recruited his players. That job was the responsibility of a truly shady man named Sam Gilbert. Wooden’s teams produced several Basketball Hall of Fame players, Knight’s just one- Isiah Thomas. While Knight liked Wooden as a person and respected his coaching ability, he had no respect for him because he tolerated UCLA’s recruiting practices and Sam Gilbert. For most Americans, Wooden was a near-God, but Knight would openly speak out about the recruiting violations and Wooden’s failure to do anything about them.?

For stances like that and others, Knight was a target for the Press, and over his career a bullseye was painted on him by the folks Knight’s friend Ted Williams (another mildly opinionated “Man’s Man”) dubbed, “the Knights of the Keyboard”. Ultimately, a couple of unfortunate incidents and a change of Administration led to Knight being fired from IU in 2001. True to his nature, he made this remark on his way out the door:?

When my time on Earth is gone, and my activities here are past, I want they bury me upside-down so my critics can kiss my ass.?

What a guy!?

Bob Knight had always been one of my heroes. I was captivated by the stories he told during his event with Lou Holtz and totally thrilled when he stopped by our booth for a photo opportunity.?

Later, it got even better.?

I was going to dinner in the hotel restaurant with some co-workers, and sitting at a table with a young woman assigned to shepherd him through the conference was the man himself- Robert Montgomery Knight. His table was directly in the path to ours, so as I passed, I stopped to say hello. I told him that I had lived in Canton, Ohio for several years and that I had visited Orrville (the town he grew up in) several times over the years to play golf at Riceland, its local course.?

Hearing that, Bob Knight asked me to join him.?

So, I did. We spent about a half hour talking about Orrville, Smuckers ( its Headquarters are there) and such. He told me how he used to steal elderberries as a kid and a few other tales. It was going great until I said, “Coach, you talked a lot today about Michael Jordan. He’s a great player all right, but he’s not the greatest player of all time. He got to take four steps before he shot, palmed the ball, pushed off to get room for a shot, and if the air direction changed in the gym, they called a foul on someone. And don’t forget- he never won a single playoff series before Scottie Pippen showed up.”?

“You’re wrong,” said Knight, which was quickly followed by the dreaded Bob Knight see-through-you glare and this question: “Who do you think was the best player of all time?”?

I had been waiting to answer that question for years, and although I was like an artist that drew stick figures about to engage in an argument about art with Michelangelo, I was ready.?

"Well, I began, there are two answers to that question. Without a doubt, the person who had the biggest impact on the game of basketball was Wilt Chamberlain. At one time he held 92 records. He still holds 65 and is the only center ever to lead the NBA in assists. Jordan would have to look the word up in a dictionary to find out what it means. But without a doubt, the greatest all-around basketball ever was Oscar Robertson."?

For those of you too young to remember, Oscar Robertson was a player without peer in his time. At 6’5” and 210 pounds, he led Crispus Attucks High School in Indianapolis to two straight state titles, then excelled at the University of Cincinnati where he was named NCAA Player of the Year from 1958 to 1960. As a pro, with the Cincinnati Royals and Milwaukee Bucks, he became the first NBA player to average a Triple Double (at least 10 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists per game) for an entire season. He averaged that for a three-year stretch. Oscar Robertson was not Jordan before Jordan; he was LeBron James before LeBron James.?

When I finished my statement, Bob Knight gave me a strange look. He paused for a few seconds before he responded (I think that since he knew I had lived in Ohio, I would have picked LeBron as the G.O.A.T.).?

It was at this point that I was about to become a victim of one of Bob Knight’s primary rules: The Coach always wins.?

Knight started this way: “I asked John Havlicek about this.” Once again, for those too young to know, John Havlicek is one of the greatest NBA players of all time. He and Knight were teammates at Ohio State. Knight went on, ?“Havlicek told me, “I played with all the old time great players and have reported on all the ones since, and without a doubt, the Greatest Basketball Player of All Time is (WAIT FOR IT)… Oscar Robertson.”?

Then, to turn what could have become defeat into victory, he shook his forefinger at me and said, “so I’ll take his word for it, but I won’t take yours.”?

It was one of the greatest moments of my life.?

Hail and Farewell to The General!

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