“I want them to bury me upside down, and my critics can kiss my ass.” Wonderfully honest article. Rest In Peace “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/coachi...ories-and-outbursts-dies-at-83-223223902.html
He surely had his flaws, but he won...and he often won with lesser talent by teaching will and tenacity on defense and by having a non stop motion offense. The vast majority of his players claim him as a family member and his graduation rate was nearly 100%.
Bobby Knight was ahead of his time. If he pulled any of his shenanigans today, he'd be basically Tommy Tubberville and would probably be in congress.
I grew up in Indy watching IU basketball coached by Bobby Knight. I watched his show every week and was totally immersed in the program like so many others. (Ironically, I ended up going to Purdue). It's hard to describe how it was during the 70s and early 80s. He was way ahead of everyone else for so many years but his temper was unreal and only certain kinds of guys could play for him. As he got older, his temper and character flaws (along with the game passing him by) destroyed his reputation in the state. I didn't realize how much of a lunatic he became and how bad the fanaticism towards him was until IU had to fire him. He thought he was untouchable, unaccountable and bigger than the university. The terrible thing was many fans felt the same way. To them, he could do no wrong, even when he physically attacked people unprovoked. I grew up thinking Bob Knight was the greatest thing since sliced bread, but I completely lost all respect for him several years after he starting whacking out.
My dad is from Indiana so he was a huge Knight fan, every time I hear his name all I can picture in my head is the chair throwing incident. RIP sir, you were one of a kind
He was one of the greatest coaches and a very flawed human being. How much one had to do with the other is hard to tell.
I am from Indiana and love all things IU. I’m a huge RMK fan and he is without question one of the greatest coaches ever in any sport imo. He routinely got so much more out of teams and players who had lesser talent. He did push you to dig as deep as you could to find what he already saw in you as a person, player and team. I went to several Bobby Knight camps as a kid and he could not have been nicer. There was real care, thought and it went beyond basketball. He left a positive impression on me. Did coach become bigger than life in Indiana? He did. Was this ultimately a negative for him? I’d say yes. Bobby Knight made many mistakes as the years passed. I think he saw how things around him were changing and he could not adjust. His temper and way of doing things just didn’t work anymore. He was as old school as it gets. He made some terrible mistakes and I will never excuse him from those. Now, on to some positives. RMK did so many things for so many people, organizations, and families. Not once did I see him play it out in the media or take credit for all the things he did. Trust me when I say there were countless times he helped people. Does it excuse his bad behavior? No. Does the positive side of this man need to be known? Absolutely. Robert Montgomery Knight will always be my coach. RIP.
Bobby Knight played at Ohio Sate, a teammate of NBA Hall of Famer John Havlicek. they were teammates on a NCAA basketball championship team. Knight then became a basketball coach at the US Military Academy at West Point, where he was a mentor to Mike Krzyzewski, who later coached at Duke. Bobby Knight presented Coach K in the college basketball hall of fame ceremony
