Bob Knight and ESPN: Who Is Worse, The Fool, Or The Fool That Employs Him?

Most everyone you ask can tell you where they were on September 11 when the WTC was attacked, a truly dark day in our history. Most people can tell you where they were when Barack Obama was elected President, becoming the first African-American to gain the title of the “Leader Of The Free World”. Every father in the world can tell you where they were and what they were doing when their first child was born, whether they were actually in the delivery room or not. All significant events in history are marked by the people of the world and their recollection of what they were doing and who they were with when the event occurred. My family is all about music, so for my father and his generation, Don McLean’s American Pie commemorating the death of Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper, and Richie Valens was as significant as it was when my generation saw Elvis’ passing on.

So, in the world where the Big Blue Nation has become the mainline of all things College Basketball related, there will be some people who know where they were and who they were with on September 7, 1979. You see that is the day that the world of sports got so much larger and so much smaller all at the same time that no one could understand what had happened. This thing called Satellite TV or Cable TV for most was in it’s infancy, and no one paid much attention to this little network that only wanted to talk about sports 24/7. Had we of only known. You see in 1979, Bobby Knight was still of significance in the world. He was only three years removed from the last perfect season that the NCAA has ever known. He had not yet started throwing chairs, or choking students, or acting as psychotically as the man we know today. Or had he? You see, that is what ESPN, Knight’s employer, and at one time the center of all of his loathing in the world has brought us to. I am more than certain that Robert Montgomery Knight did not wake up one morning in the 1990’s and say, “Today I start acting like an ass!” If history tells us anything, it is that change is a very hard pill to swallow for some, if not everyone. But there are those who have learned to embrace change as the way of the world. Bobby Knight gets a pass for most of his behavior because he was considered to be the epitome of coaching at his peak. You see the world is a more tolerant place now than it was say, 40 years ago when Knight was still successful. Knight also begat other coaches who have also been successful, like Coach K at Duke. So he must be a decent guy somewhere down deep mustn’t he?

The answer to that is no, not really. Robert Montgomery Knight is a dinosaur. And not because his coaching abilities have slipped either. He is still an incredible game analyst and student of his opponents. He understands the nuances of the game, and how to counteract every high-wire play and all of the offensive and defensive schemes that have ever been created. No, Bobby Knight is a dinosaur because he thinks like a neanderthal, and he has a mouth like a sewer. And the incredibly ignorant thing about it all is that people pay him to act that way. When Knight was a coach, he loathed the media. But now he has become what he despised and has made the profession worse for his being there.

Remember the kid Knight choked at Indiana a few years back, Neil Reed? Not his first choking incident. In the 1970’s it was Kit Klingelhofer, Indiana University’s Sports Information Director who found himself at the business end of Knight’s wrath, over a news release. No ESPN to report it back then though.

In the 1980’s it was the above mentioned chair throwing and Knight’s casual reference to rape as an inevitability, and telling the victim to lay back and enjoy it that brought the next round of outrage. That right there tells you what kind of a twisted maniac Knight was even back then.

The incidents pile on decade after decade as Knight marched on to immortality by becoming the winningest coach in NCAA history, even though he had to leave IU to do it, after the late Myles Brand had seen enough of Bobby Knight to last him a lifetime. The list of people at IU that Knight attacked and berated is long and varied. Knight has no problems attacking anyone when he sees fit.

And now that Knight has become a member of that media giant known as ESPN, which loves every bit of the attention that Knight gets every time he adds to his list of less than impressive antics, we have now found ourselves at the mercy of the Kraken from mythical days of old. A monster which cannot be killed nor conquered, merely subdued and satiated from time to time when it’s appetites get too large for humanity’s sake. ESPN, which has brought us such gems as the “scoreboard cam” at Rupp Arena this year, now finds itself in the cross hairs of the BBN and the buying power it represents. Which, while possibly being a fool’s errand, can have undoubtedly a profound effect on ESPN and how they do business. Kentucky fans are outraged, and rightfully so, but so should the SEC, and College Basketball in general be concerning Knight and ESPN and their treatment of young men who did nothing more than everything they were supposed to, and played one of the most memorable seasons of college basketball ever seen.

Knight comes off as a tired, bitter, old fool who has nothing left to rage against except the world at large, and coming from a man who is not only out of time and place, but obviously out of his mind as well, we should expect no less. Knight has reached that point where he is more to be pitied than scolded, because he can no longer prevent his brain from disengaging when his mouth opens. No, the blame here lies with the corporation and it’s management which continue to support Knight and his diatribes which not only embarrass himself, but his employer also. It is no crime to be a jackass in today’s world. But employing one is another story.

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