Another Bad Knight For The General
We’ve seen this act before. Many times in fact. Bob Knight, the ultimate disciplinarian who has no discipline, who demands respect but respects noone, and requires his players to be under control and accountable at all time, though he is nether at any time. It’s happened again, this time in the shape of a small uppercut to the chin of sophomore Texas Tech basketball player. The player, already dejected for making a bone-headed mistake on the court followed by the berating that followed by his “coach” committed the un-forgivable offense of dropping his eyes to the floor, like a beaten dog, while Knight was giving him his “lesson”. What followed is undeniable. How infractious the act was is certainly up for debate.
For their part, the coach, the school, the player, and his mother, all say the same thing. It was a non-event. And in honesty I found nothing wrong with it myself. The problem is the pattern of behavior. Isn;t that the important thing? Bob Knight has an illness, a mental defect, that causes him to physically lash out at young men. We have seen it before. His own son in in the early 90’s. An Indiana player, whom he was caught choking by a secret camera, and then the final straw, a student who said, “Hey Knight” on the Hossier’s campus, that resulted in Knight grabbing the student’s shirt. It’s a patter of bahavior, and one of physical battery.
Truth is, however, Knight is a tremendous coach. He graduates well over 90% of all his players. He never, ever gets caught breaking the rules, and to am man his former players defend him to the death. This same man, only 11 victories away from becoming the NCAA’s all-time wins leader, suspended his best player last week because he wasn’t taking care of business in the class room. A true Jeckyl and Hyde character, Knight’s greatest strength is also his greaest flaw.
He demands greatness, requires discipline, expects perfection, of everyone but himself. He does so becuase he is the only person in his world that he can’t make perfect, that won’t be disciplined, that can’t maintain control. At every turn Knight himself has thumbed his nose at authority, though should any of his players do that to him, watch out. He has usurped his direct supervisors and has used petty, immatture name calling in the media to get his points across. And his lowest point, in my opinion, was during an interview with Jeremy Schaap. Schapp is the son of the late, great Dick Schapp, and during a tough line of questioning, questions that Knight didn’t approve of, the coach decided to take the low road and bully the younger Schapp by basicall saying he would never be the reporter his father was. Can you imagine someone bringing up Bob Knight’s father to him???
In the end you’ll have to decide for yourself if this latest transgression is worth any type of punishment. That act itself wasn’t that haneous, but neither is going to a bar and having a beer, unless you are an alcoholic. Bob Knight is an addict, and someone had better step in before it’s too late.
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