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Reactions: Knight decision Users can't believe legend is getting one last chance
Posted: Tuesday May 30, 2000 08:03 PM
Indiana University's decision to keep legendary basketball coach Bob Knight as head coach under a set of guidelines is causing an uproar by CNNSI.com users. Many users think the university made a cowardly move by keeping the controversial coach. Others believe Knight's cleanly run program is reason for some leniency. A collection of some of our users' most entertaining responses follows: This is another example of why our society is in such a mess. We have jerks like Bob Knight as a leader and a role model. What kind of a university will overlook this madness for so many years? No Sacred Cows at Indiana University -- my butt!
Once again, the powers that be proved that the athletes and the coaches at some schools are better than anyone else at that school. How long would a secretary last if he/she had done any of these offenses? What about a student who's a non-athlete? IU proved that Bob Knight does not have to follow the same rules that everybody else does solely because he is a successful basketball coach -- and now he knows it. You basically gave him free reign to do anything he wants to do.
I agree with the decision made by Indiana University. Simply stated, he has done more good than bad. He has made errors that have proven him to be human like the rest of us. I have even been ashamed at some of them. But he has run a TOTALLY clean program and he has turned boys into men to face a very tough world. I've seen where they have called him a bully. I am sure he has strong-armed his way through several situations. But show me a successful person that hasn't. The only thing Bob Knight lacks on occasion is tact. I am convinced that the media waits for him to make a mistake, then pounces and overblows the situation like it does with everything else. I am glad he is still the coach and will root for IU as long as he is there.
IU's decision to "punish" Bob Knight by allowing him to continue coaching and suspend him three games and $30,000 is almost as absurd as the coach himself. Myles Brand listened more to the alumni than IU's conscience. He's fooling no one but himself. Knight is a ticking bomb and it will ultimately blow up in Brand's face.
If I were a faculty/staff member at Indiana University, I would be jumping for joy. Those guys will be able to get away with murder! Wait until the next employee has a similar problem. Think they will fire that person? No way! Looks like a big party in Bloomington!
Woody Hayes was fired as the head coach of the Ohio State University football team. All he did was sucker punch a player from the opposing team. A few years ago, Latrell Sprewell (a PROFESSIONAL basketball player), was suspended for nearly an entire season. All he did was choke his coach in a practice. For those of you keeping score at home, Bob Knight (a COLLEGE basketball coach) has choked a COLLEGE player in practice, assaulted his sports information director, attempted to assault his athletic director, and for all intents and purposes assaulted a university secretary. Knight has long espoused all that is right about his program: the graduation rates, the fact that Indiana has been successful while working within the realm of the NCAA rules. He must now reflect on his career with the knowledge that the decision by the Indiana University Board of Trustees must now unequivocally stand as the biggest disgrace in college basketball history. Coach Knight has been the epitome of what a true coach should be. He has a great graduation rate, he has run an extremely clean program, his players have developed into good citizens and he is very loyal to his friends. All of these characteristics are very important to any coach. No, I do not condone the physical pushing or shoving, but sometimes as an intense coach those things happen. I was told by an old coach of mine if they were not hollering at us or being demanding of us, then they had given up on us. I just think players have a different mental toughness, and coach Knight brings out that mental toughness that will carry over for the rest of your life.
Well, I really expected better of IU. I have to say Rick Reilly called it. Principles that an institution of higher learning should stand for have been turned on their head. This is the mother of gutless decisions.
How can it be called zero tolerance when Knight is told to adhere to the standards other people have to observe all of their lives? What a joke! And I am a graduate of IU by the way.
Coach Knight should have had the same punishment for choking one of his players that Sprewell had for choking his coach. Coach Knight should have been suspended. Better yet, make him a coach in the NBA (especially the Knicks) for one year. Let's see who is gonna choke who.
Coaching is a profession that has an implied charter to "Lead by example ... effort, attitude, skills, education." There is no room in university athletics for any coach who has a repeated obvious display of temper, loud abusive language, hands-on players physical abuse to say nothing of continuing to show less performance in critical postseason games. The game, leadership and attitude all passed Bob Knight by in the last millenium. The office of the president of Indiana University showed no courage in his decision to go for Knight and victories rather than reload and start a fresh campaign to raise Indiana off the floor.
The IU administration's ambivalence to Knight's behavior is just one more brick in the pathway to society's decadence. From Bill Clinton to Bob Knight, what type of message are we sending to our youth? It seems we are telling them to lie and win no matter what the cost and that morality and ethics are secondary. I recently heard someone on a radio talk show state that he was glad we didn't have IU's problem in Arkansas, and if IU wanted to accept that kind of behavior, that was their business. But to me, Americans as a whole should be outraged at Bob Knight's behavior and not look away just because he is not in our state.
Bob Knight graduates almost all of his players. That is what going to college is all about -- getting a degree. His players do not get in trouble when they are playing for him or when they graduate. Neil Reed is a whiner and complainer because he did not develop to be the basketball player that everyone thought he would be.
I'm happy for coach Knight -- a great coach and a caring man. I thought the whole thing was media hullabaloo from the start. The one that Knight really should have choked was the assistant coach who recruited a couple of punks like Neil Reed and Richard Mandeville in the first place. If the media hates Knight because of his attitude toward their profession, that's too bad -- there are a lot of people that share his views.
What a bunch of spineless wimps! I agree with the professors at IU who say that if they exhibited the same kind of conduct that Bob Knight had, that they would have been fired immediately.
Bob Knight is considered a "dangerous agent" in reference to employee harassment law. Indiana University is aware of a potential human resources problem and has decided to ignore it. If the issue arises again, the legal ramifications are huge. With the knowledge of previous actions by coach Knight, there will be no defense in a court of law. This places Indiana in a very financially exposed position. Not a very wise decision.
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