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Court-martial The General
Bob Knight's three national titles came with a lot of baggage. AP |
By Marc Fein, CNNSI.com
The question should be: Is
there a bad time for Bob Knight to go?
I had concerns when Indiana
University president Myles Brand decided to give coach Knight another
chance in May, but Brand handled this situation perfectly.
In May
there would have been questions of hypocrisy on the university's part. This
time, there was no doubt as to what the rules were for the coach and no doubt
about how flagrantly he violated them.
Coach Knight's continued insolence
and arrogance in the face of the zero-tolerance policy leaves even the
staunchest of Knight supporters little room for complaint.
The most clever
part of Brand's handling of the situation though, was the way he avoided
having the burden of the firing placed on the shoulders of one victim. The
six incidents that Brand referred to in his press conference deftly spread
the reach of Bob Knight's mean-spirited hands far enough so that the coach's
supporters cannot target one individual as the person responsible for the
firing.
Myles Brand will be vilified by many in Indiana. But he should be
applauded by all who love college athletics and what they stand for.
| What a bunch of hypocrites
For president Myles Brand, the student incident was the last straw. AP |
By Jeff Fischel, CNNSI.com
Should Bob Knight have been fired? No. It should have happened four months ago. This was just a make-up call on a touch foul.
If choking a player is not enough to earn termination, I'm not sure how grabbing a student by the arm and giving a short course in The General's Book of Etiquette (it couldn't be very long) could be worthy of a fall from grace.
This all makes me doubt the forthrightness of the Indiana University administration.
School president Myles Brand sounded every bit like a voice of reason and integrity Sunday. But if there were indeed previous instances of Knight violating the zero-tolerance policy, then zero doesn't equal zero.
There was no one in the forest to hear or see these other trees fall. But there's no brushing this incident under the rug, because an ambitious father made sure that would not happen. I am concerned that Brand believes if it doesn't end up on TV, then it didn't happen.
Maybe this was akin to Elliott Ness getting Al Capone on tax evasion.
But maybe it's the integrity of the university administration that is no longer untouchable.
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