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A dark side of Knight Ex-Hoosiers speak in CNN/Sports Illustrated exclusive
While 64 college basketball teams are poised to battle for the national championship, nowhere is the passion for this game greater than in the state of Indiana. And for nearly three decades coach Bob Knight has been the constant. He's idolized throughout the state, but Knight is also known for more than winning championships. Bob Knight has a style and temper that sometimes get him in big trouble. And lately that has led to some of his best recruits leaving Indiana early. For the first time, some of Knight's former players have decided to talk openly and on camera about their former coach. For nearly a year, CNN/Sports Illustrated producer Robert Abbott has looked into Indiana basketball and interviewed those in the know. This is his report: This is Bob Knight of Indiana University ... The only active coach with three national titles; a man who in his 29 years at Indiana has seen seven of his former Hoosiers move on to Div. I or NBA head coaching jobs and has been a mentor to hundreds of young men like Charlie Miller, who played four years for Knight and graduated in 1998. Charlie Miller: Behind closed doors coach Knight is genuine, he jokes, he is a down to earth person. And this is Bob Knight: Intimidating ... Temperamental ... Profane. A coach who bullies referees, his players ... And the media ... This is Bob Knight: A full professor of health, physical education and recreation. ... A man who has helped raise some $5 million for his university's library; the object of near fanatical devotion from his former players and from citizens throughout the state of Indiana.
Alan Henderson [a former Indiana player now with the Atlanta Hawks]: Last summer I had a basketball camp at home where I raise money for boys and girls third to eighth graders. I called him like maybe Wednesday and he came Thursday and spoke to my kids at camp. And this is Bob Knight ... Neil Reed [former Indiana player]: He had me by the throat for I would probably say that little situation lasted about 5 seconds. I grabbed his wrist and started walking back and by this time people, coaches Dan Dakich, Felling grabbed coach Knight and pulled him away. Neil Reed says it was his childhood dream to play basketball at Indiana for Bob Knight, and in 1994 he accepted a scholarship to play for the Hoosiers. Reed had been a high school all America and a two-time state MVP playing for East Jefferson High School in a New Orleans suburb. The son of a coach, Reed was just the sort of gritty, mentally tough, hardworking player that Knight loves. But during his three years at Indiana, Reed says he saw a far different Bob Knight than the man he had idolized. Terry Reed [Neil Reed's father]: Each year there is a term that they use up there called "whipping boy." There is no question that Neil was the whipping boy based on the fact that everybody felt that Neil could take anything. Charlie Miller: Neil is a really tough nosed guy and coach Knight knew that about Neil. Neil Reed: People will say you knew what it was like, well I didn't know that was gonna happen. No one knows that's gonna happen, no one's gonna believe that that's gonna happen, and that's fine, they don't have to. But it happened to me and it's something I have to live with.
Reed says that at a practice during his junior year in 1997, Knight confronted him for not shouting out teammate Larry Richardson's name after Reed had made a pass to him. Reed stood his ground with Knight, insisting that he had indeed yelled out Richardson's name. When Richardson sided with Reed, Reed says Knight attacked him. Neil Reed: At that point coach thrust right at me, just came right at me, wasn't far away enough to where I couldn't see it coming, was close enough to come at me and reach and put his hand around my throat. He came at me with two hands but grabbed me with one hand. People came in and separated us like we were in a school yard to fight and I actually have respect for adults and I certainly have respect for coaches and that wasn't the case. Charlie Miller: Did he actually choke him? I don't think he did, but he did put his hands around him. I thought that was too much and he shouldn't have done it but he did. Neil Reed: It doesn't matter what people call it, I call it choking, when you put your hands around someone else's throat. I mean, there is no other reason why you would. Charlie Miller: That's just his way of expressing himself, some guys can put up with it and other guys can't. CNN/Sports Illustrated has corroborated Reed's account of the choking incident with three other people who were at practice that day. They declined to go on camera and asked that their names not be used, because they were afraid that speaking out against Bob Knight could damage their careers. In describing the choking incident one said, "If he touched me like that it would have been all over the news, there would have been a fight. I would have ended up with a black eye and he would have ended up in the hospital." This is the first time that Reed has spoken publicly about the incident. Neil Reed: I'm just trying to tell my story and put it behind me because I don't want to live with this story for the rest of my life because it's too painful for me and my parents. Pat Reed [Neil Reed's mother]: The saddest part is seeing your child hurt. That's tough. That's real tough.
Terry Reed: I am not against Bobby Knight in the game of basketball. What he has done to my son is bad. What he has taken from my son is bad. Reed started 72 games and averaged just under 10 points a game during his three years at Indiana. He says now that he didn't have the courage to walk out at the time he says Knight choked him. But at the end of that season, when Knight told him that he would not get to play his senior year, Reed took Knight at his word and transferred to Southern Mississippi. Less than a year later, another former high school All-America, 7-foot center Jason Collier, left Indiana just nine games into the season. Collier transferred to Georgia Tech, where he has just completed his college career. Collier also declined our request to be interviewed on camera, saying only "I don't want to talk about it." But when he left the program, Collier said he could no longer take Knight's relentless yelling and constant criticism. This audio tape from a 1991 practice, which has been widely circulated on the Internet, shows just how volatile Knight can be. Bob Knight on tape: "... then I'm leaving and you f---ing guys will run until you can't eat supper. Now I am tired of this shit. I'm sick and f---ing tired of an 8-10 record. I'm f---ing tired of losing to Purdue. I'm not here to f--- around this week. Now you may be, but I'm not. Now I am gonna f---ing guarantee you, that if we don't play up there Monday night, you aren't gonna believe the next four f---ing days. Now I am not here to get my ass beat on Monday. Now you better understand that right now. This is absolute f---ing bulls---. Now I'll f---ing run your ass right into the ground. I mean I'll f---ing run you, you'll think last night was a f---ing picnic. I had to sit around for a f---ing year with an 8-10 record in this f---ing league and I mean you will not put me in that f---ing position again, or you will god damn pay for it like you can't f---ing believe... [Question]: How often is that what you hear during a year? Richard Mandeville [former Indiana player]: That right there is what I wish everyone watching this could hear, so they could really understand what it is like playing there or when things are going bad there that take away from the enjoyment of the game where you hear something like that, you get to the point where you are like screw this, it just turns you off. Richard Mandeville spent five years playing Indiana basketball, and graduated in 1998. Richard Mandeville: You see him, he can be the greatest, friendliest, nicest guy, but then all of a sudden he can be the craziest, meanest, just the last person you would want to be around.
Garry Donna [Indiana basketball writer]: When they get there and get into the isolated environment of their practices then Dr. Jekyll's gone and Mr. Hyde appears and it's not very pretty. Garry Donna has been covering basketball in the state of Indiana for 30 years. Garry Donna: I think it is a demeaning, dehumanizing, debilitating type situation. I think you are constantly playing in fear. I think you are being intimidated, if you are being ... as things I have heard ... you are being choked, if you are being grabbed, if you are being pushed, if you are being head-butted or being kicked, if you are being spit on or if you are being slapped, I think those are kinds of things that are kind of beyond the ordinary realm of discipline in this day and age. Alan Henderson: He got on me sometimes like he got on everybody but he knew I could take that and I never let it get me down and I just kept pushing through it and now that I am done we stay in touch. When I finished, he even wrote me a letter just letting me know how much he appreciated what I did for the program. Statistics provided by Indiana indicate that the number of early departures from Knight's program is no greater than that of other Div. I schools. But over the last three years, the Hoosiers have seen three key starters leave a program they seemed made for. CNN/Sports Illustrated has learned that the year Jason Collier left the program, freshman Luke Recker -- a former Mr. Indiana high school star, and the very ideal of a Knight athlete -- met with Knight at the end of the season and told him he wanted to transfer. According to three sources, Knight blew up, threatened to resign, told his coaching staff to find new jobs and told Recker it was all his fault. Richard Mandeville: After he talked to coach Knight he came to my house and was just a mess. Luke was a mess. Oh my god, he felt like he was going to ruin all the assistant coaches' lives, the program, the state of Indiana. He thought if he left, he would probably never be welcomed back to Indiana, the state or anything. Recker also declined our interview request. The day after Knight's tirade, the coach met with Recker and told him he would change his ways. Recker made up his mind to stay another year. He led the Hoosiers in scoring but at the end of his sophomore year, Recker faxed in his decision to transfer while Knight was out of the country. On one level, Bob Knight has run a model program: a graduation rate that is among the best in the nation, and not a single recruiting violation in nearly three decades. And Knight is well known for helping his players find jobs when their careers are over. His determination to run a clean program has enabled him to survive some notable public embarrassments: his being convicted in absentia of punching a policeman in Puerto Rico in 1979 ... throwing a chair during a 1985 game ... kicking a player in 1993 ... and accidentally head-butting a player in 1994. But former players who decided to speak to CNN/Sports Illustrated say similar episodes take place behind close doors.
Richard Mandeville: In our locker room there is a bathroom right attached to it and he came out, pants down around his ankles and just wiped his ass and said this is how you guys are playing. Neil Reed: And he just stuck his hand out with that toilet paper after he had wiped and kind of showed everyone and then walked back into the stall. Charlie Miller: That's just his way of, I guess, you know expressing himself. If I can't tell you, I have to show you and what other way to show you rather than pull my pants down, wipe my ass and say you are playing like shit, that's coach Knight. [Question]: Is that acceptable for a professor at Indiana University, a coach at Indiana University? Murray Sperber: I don't think it's acceptable for an adult. In fact, I wouldn't accept it in a child. Murray Sperber is a tenured professor of English and American studies at Indiana, and, during his 29 years in Bloomington, has become one of Knight's few vocal critics at the university. Sperber says that Knight's success on the court and his hero status throughout the state have created one set of rules for Bob Knight and one for the rest of the faculty. Murray Sperber: I know that if I did it in this classroom here at Indiana, I would probably lose my tenure by the time that I got back to my office on the fourth floor. CNN/Sports Illustrated has made several requests for interviews with coach Knight, the president of the university, Dr. Myles Brand, the athletic director Clarence Donninger, and four current players who were on the team when some of these incidents occurred. The athletic department said that it would not make coach Knight or the players available for interviews. The president's office said that if coach Knight would not agree to an interview, the president would not either. According to Neil Reed, president Brand has deferred to Bob Knight before -- allowing himself to be publicly thrown out of his own team's practice. Neil Reed: Coach Knight could hear him and just stopped practice and god dammit quit that talking. I don't come into your office and talk while you are working, get the hell out of here. And the president kind of looked, grabbed his stuff and walked out. Through his spokesman president Brand denies ever having been thrown out of practice by Knight. [Question]: Has he ever kicked the president out of practice? Richard Mandeville: He's kicked him out, I know that. What he said to him I'm not sure, but the president was always coming around and he's not just kicked him out, he's kicked people out of practice during practice if he is pissed off or things aren't going well. Garry Donna: I think if you had professors, if you had teachers, if you had administrators, if you had office personnel, anybody, who had acted as he had done, the things that he has done, I can't think of another person in a position there who would not have been terminated. Murray Sperber: I call him the emperor of Indiana, and there is no one in this state really who will stand up to him and certainly there is no one in this university who will, and so in a sense if you are the emperor, you are allowed to do what you want. You want to wipe your ass in front of your team, have the toilet paper, Bob. While Sperber is outspoken, he is not alone among Indiana faculty concerned about Knight's abusive behavior. As far back as 1987, after John Feinstein's book "A Season on the Brink" revealed Knight's coaching methods, the Bloomington faculty council adopted a statement of student athlete rights. It says "athletes shall not be subjected to physically or verbally abusive, intimidating, coercive, humiliating, or degrading behavior. ..." It goes on to say that "athletes shall also be encouraged to report any violations of these policies to the appropriate university authorities". Garry Donna says some players may fear the consequences of speaking out. Garry Donna: What are they gonna win from it, if someone is really angry and is out to get coach Knight? I don't know who that one person is, that has the power that approaches his, or has any means of making that happen. If it were the most vengeful person, I still think they would be whistling in the wind. Murray Sperber: If you cross Bob Knight and leave the program early and you're vilified as most people who have left the program are, you gotta make it on your own and life gets a little harder for you." Pat Reed: There are fewer of these young boys, that's the whole point and they have no power, they have no forum to speak, they are no one, they are kids, they are kids and they often don't get the chance to express reason that they left or what has happened in their life. Terry Reed: That's Bob Knight University, he just loans it to the state on occasions. I don't know when it is going to end ... when somebody steps up in position of power and says enough, enough. Neil Reed graduated from Southern Mississippi in May and played professionally in the Netherlands last year before deciding his heart was no longer in basketball. After leaving Indiana, Richard Mandeville played professionally in Australia last year and is currently working out in hopes of getting a tryout with an NBA team. Richard Mandeville: The guys who leave that program make the best decisions ever. If I had to do it all over again, I would have left after my freshman year. You know, everyone who's gonna be on this are the bad guys: We are the low-lifes, we're the guys who never worked hard, we were lazy, we didn't want to win. We are gonna be made out to be the bad guys in this whole thing. Neil Reed on tape: I am not out to get anyone and it seems so strange that the only weapon I have to fight this battle with is the truth and it seems like such a small weapon, you would think the truth is what everyone wants to know and everyone wants to hear. But it's not what everyone wants to know.
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