OT: 35 Year Anniversary of Bobby Knight Tossing The Chair
On February 23, 1985, exactly 35 years ago today, IU Coach Bobby Knight was "highly frustrated" with the referees during the Hoosiers game against Purdue in Assembly Hall. He expressed his extreme displeasure by ultimately tossing a plastic chair across the floor of the arena. One of my favorite clips of all time. Good story on it here:
https://www.thedailyhoosier.com/this-date-in-hoosier-history-bob-knight-throws-the-chair-2/
Love him or hate him - there will never be another Bobby Knight!
February 24th, 2020 at 12:21 AM ^
Puerto Rico has slipped off the radar over the years. But it was arguably his worst behavior ever. Which says something.
He gets ejected from multiple games (at the Pan Am Games of all events, you'd think that would be relatively low stress, the US team had 3 future basketball Hall of Famers), assaulted a police officer, and was incessantly insulting Puerto Rico.
Puerto Rico actually put out a warrant for his arrest, then sentenced him in absentia to 6 months in jail. But he never served that time.
As someone else said upstream, Knight never showed remorse. EVER.
As you said, it's truly crazy given 1979 that USA Basketball chose him to coach the 1984 Olympic team. But they did. He was obviously a good Xs and Os coach, but that was a honor he didn't deserve.
February 24th, 2020 at 1:31 PM ^
I can’t believe he didn’t get fired over that.
February 24th, 2020 at 6:39 PM ^
Yes, this article is an interesting read for those who don't know.. .https://www.nytimes.com/1979/12/30/archives/in-the-matter-of-bobby-knight-the-view-from-puerto-rico-remark.html
If Twitter existed then, Knight would have been gone. If he had choked Sprewell, he would have been long gone.
Coach K needs to retire too. ASU's Angry Bobby Hurley can take his place.
February 24th, 2020 at 1:23 AM ^
Knight was a great coach but a poor excuse for a man, and is now being brought low by his own mortality.
IU recently had a big event where they welcomed him back, and I was shocked at how feeble and out of it he looked. He was being guided by his handler, and it almost looked like he wasn’t sure where he was. I thought maybe he was just tired, but then there’s this:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.indystar.com/amp/3359396002
I’d guess he’s in the early stages of dementia. I’m sort of surprised there aren’t more stories about it in the media.
February 24th, 2020 at 2:54 AM ^
Well, He's almost 80! My MIL is 89 and has full blown dementia, not quite alzheimer. I guess that brain tissue starts to really shrink in some people when they reach 80 and above.
February 24th, 2020 at 6:39 AM ^
Not "shrinkage," but typically plaque that builds up in the brain tissues.
February 24th, 2020 at 10:41 AM ^
My dad passed away at almost 90 from the impacts of multi-infarct dementia—dementia caused by mini-strokes—and in the course of trying to figure out what was going on, he had a brain scan. The doctors said the scan revealed noticeable shrinkage of the brain; I’d guess caused by the cessation of blood flow to areas affected by each mini-stroke.
February 24th, 2020 at 7:06 PM ^
Dementia is the umbrella term for these brain disorders. The most comon form of dementia, Alzheimers is caused by protein (plaque) and fiber (tangles) build up, the second most commonly identified form of dementia is vascular related.
Studies point to the Western processed diet (lack of good fats and too much added sugar) of this becoming a bigger epidemic for our younger popluation too, especially in lower income areas where food choices are limited.
February 24th, 2020 at 2:08 AM ^
We were so young and innocent then.
February 24th, 2020 at 2:49 AM ^
Man, it was that long ago! I was a senior at UM. Time does fly by too fast!
February 24th, 2020 at 6:39 AM ^
His “Just what in the hell is a game face” postgame media session after an NCAA game is epic lunacy...
February 24th, 2020 at 9:04 AM ^
Epic lunacy was the presser during an NCAA tourney run where he came out cracking a bull whip. It was his response to a question about how he gets his teams to work hard every game. Great fun, that answer! But not particularly well thought out given the demographics of basketball (and life in general). He was raked over the coals for that one, among others!
February 24th, 2020 at 3:15 PM ^
Eh, even as a 12 year old (or thereabouts) at the time, I thought that was a pretty bad look. "Why is he impersonating a slave master?"
February 24th, 2020 at 3:39 PM ^
Cal Cheney should have told Knight to go fuck himself right then and there.
February 24th, 2020 at 7:35 AM ^
One of my favorite games that I saw in person was Michigan, led by Butch Wade, Richard Rellford, Roy Tarpley, etc., blew the doors off of Indiana to win the Big Ten. I remember Crisler going nuts when Rellford flew down the wing and slammed one home. Oh, the look on poor Bobby Knight's face...
February 24th, 2020 at 9:07 AM ^
Helped to set the industry standard for chair durability testing.
February 24th, 2020 at 9:14 AM ^
We all enjoyed Bobby's antics when he was coaching. And I suspect many of us gave him a lot of leeway for all the complaints that came out later - years after some of that stuff happened. The old 'whatever, too many years ago, don't believe' excuse we continue to use when justifying bad behavior. But I've since lost all respect for him as a person.
The thing was when he showed up at NGA headquarters outside DC to speak. The NGA Director then was Robert Cardillo - a kid young Bobby used to babysit. Apparently, the Cardillo's and Knight's are still good family friends. So Dir Cardillo brought him in as part of a long standing weekly speaker series for NGA's workforce. He gave a great speech - motivational, interesting, stirring; he's a great speaker (or used to be). But he also assaulted two women escorting him through the (classified) building by grabbing their ass, running his hand through their hair, and trying to kiss one. These were well trained, college educated, professional analysts that deserved to be treated with respect. Instead, he treated them as objects.
That weekly speaker series was ended. Cardillo apologized for bringing Knight in. And the women won their lawsuits. Screw him...
February 24th, 2020 at 10:33 AM ^
I read about this. Knight was an awful human--an abuser masquerading as a coach. Like a Hollywood producer who's mostly in it for the opportunity the job provides to victimize. And for all his vaunted coaching acumen, his teams just looked like they played scared and would lose games because of that--like they were so afraid of incurring the General's wrath that they played way too tight and made unforced errors because of that.
February 24th, 2020 at 9:27 AM ^
Thank God we as a society have stopped glorifying such pompous asses and reveling in their stupid antics done in desperate need for attention.
February 24th, 2020 at 9:45 AM ^
This is of course sacrilege in these here parts, but my dear mom lumped Knight, Bo and Woody Hayes together in the same boat - pompous, arrogant, unhinged maniacs. Her attitude did not change as far as Bo even when I matriculated at U-M in 1987.
February 24th, 2020 at 10:02 AM ^
Bo seemed to toe the line of acceptable behavior pretty well, whereas the others simply could not. Your mom was probably sick of her teams getting their asses whipped by all 3 of them.
February 24th, 2020 at 10:16 AM ^
Bo usually seemed to know when he was nearing critical mass and needed to back off.
Hayes, for all his tantrums, did have moments of introspection and even called to apologize to Charlie Bowman after the punching incident that ended his career at OSU.
And both of them have a line a mile long of people who will testify first hand that, off the field, they were men who were very generous to people in need.
Knight never had any of those positives. Guy was a total POS on and off the court.
February 24th, 2020 at 10:35 AM ^
I wonder if he was more nuts than Woody.
Don't worry...I'm informing you if I am wondering that. I'm not asking anyone here if I am wondering.
February 24th, 2020 at 11:23 AM ^
Yes. Bobby Knight was more nuts than Woody Hayes.
Off the court, I've yet to hear of many random people saying what a good person he was. A good speaker, yes. But nobody says he was a good person. His players say they loved him (or devoutly hated him) as a coach, and they leave it at that.
Off the field, Woody was commonly praised for his efforts with people. He taught actual courses in history at OSU (take note, Urbane...) His players loved him as a person, coach, and man - faults be damned. He had his moments of frustration on the field - a lot of that staged for benefit of the officials. That punch was a lapse in judgement, no doubt, and it somewhat defines his on-field persona. But it has never shaped the view of him as a person.
Knight, OTOH, is defined as a person by his on-court BS. Nobody remembers him as a good person.
February 24th, 2020 at 12:25 PM ^
You can tell when Isiah Thomas talks about Knight that he still kind of wishes he’d had a chance to fuck him up.
February 24th, 2020 at 11:34 AM ^
February 24th, 2020 at 1:48 PM ^
Always hated him.
One of my favorite moments, (just before the basketball program took it's nosedive to hell) was when we beat Indiana at Crisler in 1998, 112-64. It was the most points IU had given up in their history of their program, but just a few short of their most lopsided loss in school history.
Just seeing Knight's face was one of my favorite sports memories ever.