Silent Knight, Holy Knight

It's that time of year again.  Here in Indianapolis, it's looking like a winter wonderland, and all eyes have turned to the NCAA basketball tournament.  March Madness indeed.  Basketball is an Indiana passion, actually rankng above bigotry in most polls.  For many Hoosiers, one name will always be linked to March Madness; Bobby Knight.

Recently, The New York Times ran an article, Coach Bobby Knight on why he's so unpleasant, a brief interview with Coach Knight.  In the interview, he appears to fit into the persona, so often associated with him, surly and uncommunicative.  The interview is part of the media coverage of a new book by Coach Knight "The Power of Negative Thinking".  What I found most interesting were the comments added by readers of The New York Times.  After all this time, Coach Bobby Knight is someone who evokes a very strong emotional response from many.

Let's look at some of the negative aspects of Coach Knight.  Probably first and foremost would be his temper.  He threw a chair, assaulted a police officer and choked a player, and those are just the stories that made the press.  Who knows how many outbursts were never caught on film, or reported.  I can relate.  I have a temper and I've done much worse than Coach Knight.  Fortunately, I rarely have a camera lens pointed my way.  There is really only one thing that causes me to lose my temper, incompetence.  This seems to be Coach Knight's issue as well.  When incompetence was keeping him from achieving his goals, he blew up.

Coach Knight has long been criticized for being unresponsive and combative with the press.  When a reporter asks a stupid question, he doesn't use diplomacy, he tells them, one way or another, it is a stupid question.  After hearing the types of questions most reporters feel are important, I can't blame him.  As an example, prior to the 1994 Super Bowl , a reporter asked Buffalo's Cornelius Bennett, "Do you think you can win?".  The press has reached the point where they feel every aspect of every celebrities life is newsworthy, and the public seems to agree.  If the athletes 75 years ago had been subjected to the same scrutiny, no sport would need a hall of fame.  A simple vestibule would be sufficient.

Bobby Knight coached basketball as a team sport.  This is important.  Basketball is a team sport.  He didn't go out and recruit superstars and superstars didn't have any desire to play for him.  After all, why go to a school where you're required to attend classes, maintain high grades and live and work the same as everyone else, when plenty of coaches and universities are more than happy to set a superstar up in luxury.  Coach Knight always understood that athletics were a part of the university, not the other way around.  Football teams weren't founded and then later, someone decided to add a school.  Under Bobby Knight, Indiana basketball maintained high standards and ran a clean program, and they won.

Discipline used to be very important, in all aspects of life.  From the time we were crawling throughout our lives we were subject to one form of discipline or another.  Whether a swat on the diaper, or being sent to reform school,  being grounded, or getting fired, there were always consequences to our actions.  No longer is this the case.  Children are no longer expected to behave in any way, and adults seldom face consequences for their actions.  All it takes is a good lawyer and a sympathetic jury, and one mark of a good lawyer is the ability to select a sympathetic jury.

Today's college athletics have no place for Coach Knight and his philosophy.  Discipline?  Respect?  Teamwork?  Hard Work?  College Basketball is big business.  There is no place for a team that wins through hard work and teamwork.  The media demands high-scoring, high-flying stars assisted by a few unknowns.  No one cares if the player can handle basic math, as long as he produces on the court.  Who cares if he has 3 illegitimate children by 3 different women.  He's just someone that makes the university money on his way to the NBA.  So what if he misses half the practices and never goes to class?  He's averaging 26.3 points per game.

Too many coaches are willing to buy their way to a championship, too many universities want to win, no matter what it takes.  Coach Knight insisted his teams earned their successes, just as he expected his players to earn the right to play.  He expected his players to measure up to his standards.  He wasn't interested in making an NBA player out of the people he coached, we wanted to make them men.