Bob Knight — A Terrific Basketball Coach with a Terrible Temper

I’m a big-time college basketball fan and believe Bob Knight is probably the third-best coach in college basketball history — only UCLA’s coach John Wooden and Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski rank higher in my opinion in terms of their on-court coaching prowess. However, I believe Knight’s overall legacy is dramatically diminished by his repeated inability to control his temper and his tongue and his reluctance to express regrets at his worst transgressions.

There is no question that Knight, based on his coaching record at Army from 1965-1971, Indiana from 1971-2000 and Texas Tech from 2001-2008, is a coaching legend. His teams posted an incredible .709 winning percentage (902 wins and 371 losses). He won three NCAA championships, one NIT championship, and 11 Big Ten Conference championships for Indiana including a 32-0 undefeated season in 19751976, which was the last team to go undefeated in college basketball. In 1984, he coached the USA men’s Olympic team to a gold medal, becoming one of only three coaches to win the triple crown of an NCAA title, an NIT title, and an Olympic gold medal.

There is also no question that Knight was one of college basketball’s most innovative coaches. He popularized the “motion offense” which often ran like a perfectly engineered car. His teams were known for their preparation, hustle, discipline, proficient passing and most importantly, their unselfishness. On defense, Knight’s teams were known for playing a fierce “man-to-man” defense.

Bob Knight was also a strong and consistent believer in the importance of academics. His teams were well-known for performing well in academically, as it was a requirement of all of his players. During his entire career, only four of his four-year players did not graduate (meaning 98% did graduate). In fact, while at Indiana, nearly 80% of all of his players graduated. The national average for Division I schools at the time was 42%. Knight also tried to lobby the NCAA to adopt a rule where a program would lose a scholarship for every player who doesn’t graduate within five years. Further, Knight raised millions of dollars for Indiana University including $5 million for the library.

And finally, Bob Knight ran a scandal-free program. There were no hints of under-the-table money going to his players or his seeking to enroll his players in Mickey Mouse classes. He ran a very clean program.

However, Bob Knight was a serial misbehaver who was incapable of curbing his temper tantrums throughout his career. Further, his stubbornness precluded him from expressing regrets over his most egregious incidents which included: grabbing one of his players, throwing a chair on the court, hitting a phone against the scorers table, hitting his son Pat while he sat on the Indiana bench, chocking a player during practice, using a bullwhip playfully on black player during a press conference and finally, the incident for which caused his firing at Indiana — grabbing a student who yelled “Hey, what’s up Knight?” instead of addressing him more respectfully as “Coach Knight.”

Hall of Fame basketball player and commentator Bill Walton wrote in Time Magazine in 2000 that “Imagine if Knight was your first coach, a bully, a boor, vulgar, violent and negative. I would have quit.”

Walton went on to contrast Knight’s coaching style with coach Wooten, his coach at UCLA: “The dichotomy between [them] could not be greater. One thing that really stands out about Knight is that it’s always about him…. John Wooden was the antithesis of the anger, the scowl, and the selfishness. With Coach Wooden, an Indiana native, life was always fun, always upbeat, and always positive, always about the team, always about the greatness of the game….Wooden was a teacher. He taught on a constant basis, from showing us how to put our shoes and socks on, to building a foundation based on the human values and personal characteristics embodied in what he called his Pyramid of Success. Compare that to Knight’s psychological torture chamber…. No wonder great players — Larry Bird, Isiah Thomas, George McGinnis —don’t last in Bloomington. Why would anyone even go there? Wooden inspired confidence, which he considered essential to achieving peak performance. He taught us that the journey to the top of the pyramid was the result of a lifetime of preparation. While Wooden fostered hope, Knight represents the death of hope, the stifling control freak.”

For players with extremely intact egos, Knight’s could be a motivator. If on the other hand, you lacked ego strength and didn’t take well to be scolded, reprimanded, or terrorized; his coaching style could be quite intimidating.

In various ways Bob Knight reminds me of Chris Christie. He could be charming and charismatic one minute and a bully and boorish the next. They are truculent, stubborn and generally unrepentant personalities.

While Knight apologized for some of his transgressions, his defiant nature never abated. On balance, I’d characterize him as a great onthecourt coach but not a great person. In fact, he was a deeply flawed figure when contrasted with highly successful and well-rounded college coaches like John Wooten and Mike Krzyzewski who win and conduct themselves with dignity and aplomb, both on and off the court.