SEPTEMBER 08, 20:37 EDT Indiana Investigating Knight Again By REX W. HUPPKE Associated Press Writer BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) — Indiana coach Bob Knight called an accusation that he cursed at a student ``absolutely, totally untrue,'' saying he simply gave the teen-ager a lecture about manners while holding his arm. Nonetheless, the school is investigating the confrontation and considers the matter ``extraordinarily serious,'' university spokesman Christopher Simpson said Friday. Knight has been under scrutiny since he was accused of choking a player during a 1997 practice, and he was told in May he would be fired if he didn't adhere to a ``zero tolerance'' policy imposed by the university. ``I would have to be an absolute moron — an absolute moron — with the things that have been laid on me to grab a kid in public, or curse a kid in public, as apparently it's been said that I did,'' Knight said at a news conference. The stepfather of the 19-year-old student told ESPN.com that Knight confronted his stepson Thursday at Assembly Hall after the teen greeted him with, ``Hey, what's up, Knight?'' The student was picking up football tickets at the building, which also houses the basketball arena. Knight said the confrontation occurred as he and the student crossed through a doorway. The coach diagrammed on a blackboard at the news conference how their paths crossed and then re-enacted the encounter with assistant coach Mike Davis, showing how he briefly held the student's arm. ``I said, 'Son, my name is not Knight to you. It's Coach Knight or it's Mr. Knight. I don't call people by their last name, and neither should you,''' Knight said. ``This was simply a matter of manners and civility,'' he said. ``I don't think my voice ever rose above a conversational tone. ``That is what happened and that's entirely what happened and any deviation from that ... is absolutely, totally untrue.'' Knight also called it an ``interesting coincidence'' that the student was a stepson ``of a guy who over the years has probably been the most vitriolic critic I've had.'' The stepfather, Mark Shaw, a former radio talk-show host, said Knight took the teen by the arm, whirled him around and began cursing him. ``There were still finger marks visible on his arm,'' Shaw told the Indianapolis Star. ``I don't care if we're talking about Bob Knight, the president of the United States, or some guy off the street. That kind of conduct is not tolerated,'' he said. ``My stepson was shocked and intimidated by Knight.'' The teen, Kent Harvey, said he addressed Knight ``on the spur of a moment'' as they were passing each other. ``I called him by his last name and he blew up,'' he said in an interview with WRTV-TV in Indianapolis. ``I froze. I didn't know what to say. I didn't know what to do.'' Davis, who saw the confrontation, said there was no violence and no profanity. ``He never said a curse word, he never raised his voice,'' the assistant said. University police said the student and four witnesses had been contacted, but that school conflicts and Knight's schedule could hinder the investigation. Following a series of accusations that Knight verbally and sometimes physically abused players, the university suspended him for three games and fined him $30,000. The school also said the coach has to follow a supervised code of conduct, which it has yet to fully detail, and will be fired immediately if he violates it or has physical contact with any player or university employee. ------------------ In order to be a success in life, you need 2 things: 1. Don't tell everything you know.
*, Here is a link to a Hoosier BBS. http://interact.starnews.com/cgi-bin/forumdisplay.cgi?action=to pics&forum=Indiana|APO|s+Game:+Hoosiers&number=8 Another BBS: http://sportsmidwest.com/wwwboard/iibf/index.html Another BBS: http://sportsmidwest.com/wwwboard/iuhoop/ Mango ------------------ 1. Put new topics in the proper forum. Things happening in the rest of the NBA 2. Use clear wording for new threads. 3. No duplicate threads 4. Conduct yourself as an adult. The Serious Police are watching. Donate Blood or be assimilated! [This message has been edited by Mango (edited September 08, 2000).]
Go here to watch Knight's press conference: http://www.espn.go.com/ ------------------ In order to be a success in life, you need 2 things: 1. Don't tell everything you know.
I watched the press conference and it was funny to hear Knight speak about manners. Mango ------------------ 1. Put new topics in the proper forum. Things happening in the rest of the NBA 2. Use clear wording for new threads. 3. No duplicate threads 4. Conduct yourself as an adult. The Serious Police are watching. Donate Blood or be assimilated!
Did you see his tongue in cheek LOL ------------------ In order to be a success in life, you need 2 things: 1. Don't tell everything you know.
I thought he was serious with the rambling prelude story he gave to try and put this current situation in perspective. Mango ------------------ 1. Put new topics in the proper forum. Things happening in the rest of the NBA 2. Use clear wording for new threads. 3. No duplicate threads 4. Conduct yourself as an adult. The Serious Police are watching. Donate Blood or be assimilated!
He was trying to be but his "Act" is wearing thin. ------------------ In order to be a success in life, you need 2 things: 1. Don't tell everything you know.
*, You seem to have changed your stance on Knight and this incident. What happened? Mango ------------------ 1. Put new topics in the proper forum. Things happening in the rest of the NBA 2. Use clear wording for new threads. 3. No duplicate threads 4. Conduct yourself as an adult. The Serious Police are watching. Donate Blood or be assimilated!
Bob Knight lecturing someone on manners? WHAT????? Are these the same manners that include: Screaming at your son in front of thousands? Shoving human feces in people's faces? Choking a player? Throwing a chair onto the court during a game? Cursing out your boss? I wonder if Miss Manners would approve. ------------------ Save Our Rockets and Comets SaveOurRockets.com
Mango, I haven't changed my stance at all. I am only looking at the big picture. He has a reputation after all, but that does not make him guilty in this case. I am simply gathering facts to find the truth. ------------------ In order to be a success in life, you need 2 things: 1. Don't tell everything you know.
Bob: I think the deal with Knight is that this is a pattern of behavior. The guy is definitely a loose cannon and, eventually, it is going to get someone hurt - hopefully, it will be him and not a kid. At some point, someone has to say, "Enough" and force the guy to listen. Whether that is getting fired or getting his ass kicked is really up to him. He could solve this whole problem by simply going to counseling and learning to change his behavior but it is obvious that he will not do that, so we are stuck with his antics until the school gets fed up with it. ------------------ Save Our Rockets and Comets SaveOurRockets.com
Jeff, I noticed that Knight still had some supporters on the various Hoosier BBall BBS sites. What will it take to shake the faith of his hard-core fans? Mango ------------------ 1. Put new topics in the proper forum. Things happening in the rest of the NBA 2. Use clear wording for new threads. 3. No duplicate threads 4. Conduct yourself as an adult. The Serious Police are watching. Donate Blood or be assimilated!
Some will never be shaken. Fan is short for fanatic after all and some will never think that Knight is a problem. Eventually, he will have to be forcibly removed. Like everything and everyone else, Bob Knight is impermanent. When he is gone, someone else will take his place and eventually he will simply be a memory. I think it would just be best for everyone if that process began sooner rather than later. ------------------ Save Our Rockets and Comets SaveOurRockets.com
Like with guns and handcuffs? ------------------ In order to be a success in life, you need 2 things: 1. Don't tell everything you know.
Interesting read: Saturday September 09 09:16 PM EDT Former student gives her take on Knight By Dawn Reiss - The Sporting News Dawn is one of three college journalists on TSN's Ultimate NFL Road Trip. I have a different take on Bob Knight. I took Knight's basketball coaching class last fall as a senior at Indiana. I was also an athlete and a reporter. I'm not an expert; I only saw one side of the man, like a mountain that many have tried to climb each with their own path. I wasn't sure what to expect before taking the class. My friends had different opinions about coach Knight. Some hated him and would have spit in his eye, while others enshrined him in photos on their bedroom walls. The first day of class, eighty some students sat hungry for coach Knight's knowledge in the basketball press room. Our chairs were filed in straight lines, like a good Catholic grade school with the traditional Indiana logo painted on the wall behind the podium. Coach Knight spoke in parables of his life, using each story to reach a specific point. He asked us how many of us did not like a coach at one point in our life. Almost everyone in the room raised a hand. "As a senior in high school, I had a basketball coach that I hated," Knight said. "I learned as much from him as anyone else. I learned what to do as well as what not to do." At one point, coach Knight recommended the class to read a book a week, and more specifically, two books, "The Art of War," by Sun Tzu and Mia Hamm's "Go for the Gold," because "you will get new expressions and a better use of the language. You will also progress and have more knowledge." Like a road map, Knight plotted out his class with Tzu's guide. "Just as water retains no constant shape, in war there are no constant conditions," he quoted. "On the basketball floor the conditions always change, you have to adapt." The class lasted for almost two hours, two days a week, for eight weeks. If you missed once you received a C, if you missed twice you failed and if you were late, it was considered an absence. Coach Knight taught most of the lectures, while former Indiana assistant coach and current Bulls assistant coach Norm Ellenberger taught the lab, on Assembly Hall's court floor. Class grading was based on attendance and a notebook containing charts diagramming basketball plays and topics discussed in class. Coach Knight taught us more about life than basketball. He told us mental is to physical, as 4 is to 1 and that success was not a matter of luck. He taught us how to apply for a coaching or teaching job, with the promise of giving a coaching recommendation, if a student received an A. More importantly, he tried to give us roots and wings, in some small fashion, by making us write down a personal profile, to know thy self, and important history dates, since history repeats itself. He told the class that apathy is a big problem, and that's why people don't bother to vote. He returned to class the weekend after his infamous hunting accident to say with a huge grin: "I think many of you heard about my weekend. You better be good today, because if you don't behave I might have to use my shotgun again." As an A student, I asked for coach Knight to speak to my rowing team instead of a coaching recommendation. Crew was a first year varsity sport at Indiana. We had one scholarship, which the coach used to help our equipment fund. The student paper barely even mentioned our name throughout the year. Yet coach Knight took the time to speak to the team when my coach seemed a bit overwhelmed at his first full-time coaching position. Coach Knight spoke to us after basketball practice one day before our last regatta of the fall season. He asked, "What do you want to know about winning and I will answer anything you ask." He told the rowing team "success is generated by the same thing built around effort, fatigue and stress, and that is what separates the player from the players who know how to win." He told us that simplicity and execution always beat surprise and chance, but learning the fundamentals, in any game is the most important. Two weeks into his coaching career, Knight wrote a letter to his former Ohio State basketball coach, "I told him that I'd liked to have coached a year before playing," said Knight. "Players always think they are better than what coaches think. He still has that letter 38 years later." Some might think I put coach Knight on a pedestal. I do not. I think he is a brilliant man, who has made mistakes like anyone else. He isn't perfect, but no one is in this all-too-human world. He isn't always media savvy. He is arrogant and passionate. He says what he thinks and sometimes forgets to think about his advice before he speaks. He is the brains, behind the brawn, but sometimes the brawn takes over. I can't imagine what it must be like to be constantly in the spotlight, without privacy, where the stakes are higher in a chess game of life. His reputation precedes him, rightly or wrongly and as I know all too well; people assume they know someone based on how the media perceive that person -- they want heroes and failures. Then again, this is just one person's take on the mountain within the man. ------------------ In order to be a success in life, you need 2 things: 1. Don't tell everything you know.
Oh man! She's in trouble! She refered to him three times by his last name, without "Coach" or "Mr.", and she didn't capitalize "coach" several times. I guess he'll have to give her another lesson! It's interesting that Knight taught her how "history repeats itself." ------------------ Stay Cool...
And here is the other side of Knight (the bad side): http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/thenetwork/news/2000/03/14/knight_indiana/ ------------------ In order to be a success in life, you need 2 things: 1. Don't tell everything you know.
What I find funny is how this guy is revered and considered some kind of hero. Let's straighten this out: He is a coach. Basketball is a game. I hate coaches using the Art of War to describe their job. First off, the book is more about life than war. It is constantly used as a practical lesson on war but that is only the most utilitarian review of its contents. Second, war is not running around in shorts and tennis shoes on a court. If war were a game, no lives would be lost on a real battlefield. I love the game of basketball but I recognize that it is a game and the serious tone taken when discussing it makes it a lot less fun. ------------------ Save Our Rockets and Comets SaveOurRockets.com
I think that this single "incident" is nowhere near to being a sufficient cause to fire someone. From what I have read, the guy is crazy, but the one who should apologize here should be the little punk, if anyone. I just hate these people who provoke celebrities and then try to profit from their reaction. It was certainly stupid of Knight to even stop and grab the guy's arm, but that's not a reason to fire someone.
But it isn't this incident alone that caused the firing. This was merely the straw that broke the camel's back. The University had him on a no-tolerance policy based on his prior bad acts. When he made the one mistake, the no-tolerance kicks in and Knight was fired. It wasn't this incident that caused the firing, it was this incident along with everything that came before that caused the firing. Had this incident been Knight's only run-in, he'd still be the coach of the Hoosiers. ------------------ HoustonSportsBoard.com SpiritOfTheBull.com The Best Houston Texans Fan Site
