Bobby Knight

Bobby Knight was a throwback coach. 

His style certainly wouldn’t work in this day and age, but there was a time when a coach like Knight was definitely in charge.

Knight threw a chair across the court, choked a player as he came off the floor, berated reporters, fans and his own school administrators.

I knew a player who went to one of his coaching camps and she was deathly afraid of him - after the camp!

Rosemary was an all-star division one player, and she told me about the camp coached by Knight.

“He’s a scary man,” she said.

Now, I played under some coaches who definitely yelled. My favorite coach ever once told me that if I threw the overhead pass one more time:

“I’m going to stuff the Spaulding up your ass!”

I laughed.

He threw me out of practice.

That coach got the most out of our team. Yeah, he yelled to make his point, but we all knew that he cared about us as players and he wanted to win.

We would’ve run through a wall for him.

I’ve also had plenty of bosses who were screamers. The insults would fly and if we showed any weakness it got worse.

When I heard that Knight died I instantly thought of an interview question where he absolutely obliterated a reporter who asked him how they lost.

“They scored 70. We scored 68. The team that scores more wins. What kind of question is that? You’re a moron.”

The sports world was horrified by his response.

I think he was the first celebrity who had to go away for anger management.

He was fired after he choked the kid on the court, and he remained defiant to the end.

“Won’t ever be a coach allowed to treat his players like that again,” Jake said.

Jake obviously didn’t see Knight coach, but he read the stories.

“Maybe that’s a good thing,” I said.

“Was he a good coach?” Jake asked.

“I guess, but he’s going to be remembered for being mean. That isn’t the best way to be immortalized.”

Either way.

Another legend of my youth is gone.