Coaching legend Bob Knight, famous for both victories and outbursts, dies at 83
He was brilliant. He was a bully. He coached some of the most perfectly disciplined basketball ever played, and then acted undisciplined in his own life.
He was an American original and a cultural touchstone with oversized impact, in ways good and, yes, sometimes less so.
You could say Bob Knight was a product of his time, but even half a century ago he pushed the edges of proper conduct; attempting, say, to beat down the door to the referee’s dressing room was frowned upon back in the 1970 NIT as well.
Complicated? They don't get much more complicated than Robert Montgomery Knight, one of the greatest coaches of all time. He combined a demanding will and a legendary temper to become as famous for his authoritarian outbursts as decades of dominance highlighted by three national college basketball titles.
Knight died on Wednesday at his home in Bloomington, Indiana after a lengthy illness, his family announced. The Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer was 83.
You can’t write the history of basketball, perhaps even the history of this country, without mentioning Knight. It’s not merely for his accomplishments, but the way his teams embodied (and then inspired in others) the ideal that teamwork can produce a whole better than its parts.
Knight won 902 games at Army (1965-1971), Indiana (1971-2000) and Texas Tech (2001-08). It was with the Hoosiers that he won those three NCAA men's championships, including coaching the sport’s most recent undefeated team in 1976.
He was among the last of a certain breed, a terrifying tyrant seemingly incapable of interacting with the outside world yet also a skilled, masterful teacher and loyal supporter for all who managed to survive playing for him.
He was nicknamed the General for how he carried himself and his coaching roots at West Point. In truth he was more an unforgiving drill sergeant.
Knight was a volcano always ready to erupt, part of what made him a-larger-than-life, must-watch sideline star during some of college hoops' most glorious eras. He was a colorful storyteller with a caustic wit and, if he wished, an abundance of charm. He was, if nothing else, incredibly entertaining.
There was the right way to do things (namely his way). The game would be played with discipline, fundamentals, toughness, smarts, preparation, respect and always featuring man-to-man defense. Everything else was just a distraction, or someone getting in the way. He cared little for criticism.
“When my time on Earth is gone, and my activities here are passed,” he once said over the Assembly Hall public address system, “I want them to bury me upside down, and my critics can kiss my ass.”
That was Knight. Clever, crude and in your face.
He won. And won. And won.
He also choked a player. He threw a chair.
He once stuffed a heckling LSU fan into a garbage can.
He coveted the chance to do the same to most referees and reporters because if there was one thing that the generally certain Knight was never truly settled on, it’s which profession was more incompetent.
“All of us learn to write in the second grade,” he said of the media. “Most of us go on to greater things.”
https://www.yahoo.com/sports/coaching-legend-bob-knight-famous-for-both-victories-and-outbursts-dies-at-83-223223902.html