God how I miss Bobby Knight and 80s-90s IU Basketball

[otto105]

Living in the same town as Knight, I have saw him several times over the years. Almost no one ever approaches him, not because they are afraid or nervous by him - but because they respect him and his privacy.
I always wanted to meet him person to person, like millions of other IU fans I suppose. And I know exactly what I would say... "I want to thank you Coach for giving Indiana something to be extremely proud of. Not because you won so much, which is of course VERY enjoyable, but because you made all those wins happen without even the slightest hint of cheating in recruiting or otherwise. And to this day, and perhaps forever, will hold the highest graduation rates of any other program in America."
Knight is one of the most misunderstood and maligned coaches in the history of any coach in any sport.
He hated the sports media, hated their dumb questions and showed that ire every chance he got. And in return, every chance they got they jumped at any opportunity to show him in a bad light. As non-fans of IU and living anywhere but Indiana, all you know about Bobby Knight is his infamous chair throwing event, his temper and yelling. Attacked incessantly from any angle they could find, constantly lied to him about what an interview was going to be about - which angered him (what they wanted anyway) and he would storm off. (Also what they wanted)
Which led to the worst of the worst - his statement to a shitty news correspondent Connie Chung.
He was set up. He did not know Chung then, did not know her ambitions, did not now she would do anything to climb the ranks of television news. She talked very friendly to him, in what he thought was off camera comments, she asked about how he handled the stress of dealing with the media he said - “I think that if rape is inevitable, relax and enjoy it,” And that is what Chung showed on TV... she cut out the question before it, and edited out what he said immediately after... 'That's just an old term that you're going to use. The plane's down, so you have no control over it. I'm not talking about that, about the act of rape. Don't misinterpret me there. But what I'm talking about is, something happens to you, so you have to handle it"
That is not Bob Knight. Never was.
Bob Knight is a man driven to win. Always win. But not at all cost. His program, to this day, has the most stellar record of conforming to NCAA rules. Never once giving money, gifts, favors or anything else in the recruitment process. His unwavering dedication to fairness and fair play is legendary. What other coach do you know of who, on several occasions, gets on the public address speaker and admonishes the teams OWN fans for getting too loud when an opponent was shooting free throws, or booing an opponent?? That was Bob Knight. Win, always be winning, but never at the cost of being fair to your opponent, even when they aren't fair to you.

Typical Bob Knight feeling feisty to a man with the hardest job on the planet... providing a weekly show with a coach that could care less about being on television...



And Knight dealing with the media is always funny....

Yeah, those chairs aren't going to throw themselves.