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Bob Knight releases public statement
Posted: Saturday May 13, 2000 03:22 PM
Indiana coach Bob Knight, responding to a rash of new allegations involving various personal confrontations, issued a statement Saturday in which he discussed for the first time his perceived temper problem and how he is dealing with it. The full text of the statement appears below:"I was asked not to comment on the pending matter made and I intend to continue to be one person honoring the request. However, I do feel that I should address something that was not a factor in the investigated incident: my temper. Practically all of us have some problem to deal with in life. For some, something as simple as meeting people or talking in front of people. My temper problem is a lot more troublesome than those, and it is something I have had to deal with for as long as I can remember. There are times in my passion for basketball that led me into confrontations that I could have handled a lot better. I have always been too confrontational, especially when I know I'm right. I know as well as anyone does; I have to develop a more diplomatic approach. I'm not very good at just forgetting something and going on, and I am truly sorry about that. I'm working on it, and I have a helper. I have mentioned before that my wife has posted signs around our house; 'The horse is dead. Get off it.' As hard as that is for me to do, I think I'm getting better at it, because of her and those signs. When I get on a kid or a team in practice, I always wind up more upset with myself than with anyone else. I can, and invariably do, make it up to our kids, but I can not do that with myself. I can, and I will, try a little harder. I'm as proud as a man can be of the basketball program we have been able to build over the last 29 years, prouder of the great kids that have made up that program and what they have gone on to do and be than I am of the games and of the championships they have won. Intense, demand, and temper have been a three-braided rope for me, and I really believe that the first two have been a major reason for the success of our kids and teams. It is my job and my determination to temper that third braid. I will have it up to our kids to judge if I'm improving, just as it is my job to keep improving them."
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