So here we are again. Bobby Knight's misdeeds are being played out live and surreal on the media stage, and a public debate is raging. His latest blunder: He went "Sprewell" on a player.
You know the routine. First comes the offense, then comes the rush of sycophants to tell us it is not as it seems, that the offender is unjustly accused, that he is really a great man, a brilliant motivator, a molder of young men whose harsh and mean ways are justified by victories and character. Then Knight acts as if he can't imagine what all the fuss is about, and, by the way, how dare you ask!
They remind you of the cigarette companies defying, in the face of overwhelming evidence, that there is anything wrong.
Letter to the Buffalo News: "Neil Reed was a weenie. Knight tried to do what Reed's parents failed to do, to make a man of him . . . Bob Knight has done so many things people haven't heard of. Any guy who played for Indiana and went to the NBA to become a millionaire can thank Bobby Knight!"
This act has been played out for more than 20 years. Attack the accuser. Label him: malcontent, loser, outcast, weakling, weenie. Why pick on the coach, they say, genuinely deluded by blind devotion, never wondering how it is that no other coach in America, even those more successful than Knight, has one Knight-like incident.
Nor is there any acknowledgment of the hypocrisy of a man who demands so much discipline of his players — and so little of it himself. Self-control, poise under pressure — he has none. Knight and his minions give us the feeling that he knows more than the rest of us, so who are we to judge him? Nobody understands him. We can't. He's way too deep for us. Bobby Knight is not a bad guy. Just misunderstood. It is the believers trying to convert the unbelievers.
Letter to the Houston Chronicle: "I graduated from Indiana University just like 78 out of the 81 basketball players who attended IU for their full scholarship. Can Guy Lewis make such a claim? I don't think so. I would not trade Knight for Lewis or Jerry Tarkanian or any other coach. You guys are so jealous of Knight you skip no chance to print lies, innuendo, garbage or rumors."
Another tactic: Divert attention from the real issue. When Neil Reed first revealed that he had been choked by Knight, the coach noted that he had had no NCAA violations at Indiana and mentioned his high graduation rates and fine winning percentage. His defenders noted the fine acts he has done out of the public eye. As if this justifies or excuses all other behavior.
IU officials denied Reed's accusations in a news conference. They released a statement from a former player denying Reed was choked. They showed us a letter from a woman who said Reed was abusive and vulgar around children at a basketball camp. They said that Reed was voted off the team.
They lied.
A videotape was introduced that shows Knight with his hand wrapped around the player's neck. It turns out the school was guilty of assassinating the character of a player who was telling the truth. Or is it just our perception of truth? The video is fuzzy. There's room for unreasonable doubt here among Knight's faithful.
He's not choking him, he's taking his neck size. Look, the kid didn't even turn purple.
He's just motivating him, moving him around on the floor.
It's just his hands-on approach to coaching.
That's not Reed; it's some other player.
(They forgot this one: Maybe he's just showing the kid what Indiana teams do in the first round of the NCAA tournament.)
Letter to the Washington Post: "I am so tired of hearing the crybabies whining about coach Knight. The real problem is not if he choked someone. The real issue is the softness of our young men. Young people need discipline, and when trying to find the balance in the administration of this discipline, frustrations grow, and physical contact takes place . . . Coach Knight's only crime is still being a coach and mentor in this new age of softness."
Coaches band together and rally to Knight's defense. Listen to Utah's Rick Majerus praise Knight some time just because he once showed kindness to the coach early in his career. In a news conference last month, Temple's John Chaney rallied to Knight's defense and called himself "The Black Knight."
"I think a coach who will not buy bad behavior is a . . . good coach, and he's rare," Chaney said. "Bob Knight is rare. I am rare. I am another Bob Knight."
Probably Knight didn't need that. The "Black Knight" is another hot-head who was once suspended for a game because he threatened to kill another coach.
"One of the things that I believe sincerely in what he does and what I do is that I don't buy bad behavior," Chaney said. "I don't buy it. And that's what this country is doing: buying bad behavior."
Apparently, choking a player is not considered bad behavior. Where were these guys when Latrell Sprewell was branded a villain?
The single most remarkable feat of Knight's career is that he has endured despite a career marked by intimidation, meanness and immaturity.
He stuffed a fan in a trash can. He screamed profanities at an NCAA tournament official. He struck a Puerto Rican cop and fled the country to escape the law. He threw a chair onto the court. He kicked a player and cursed at his fans. He got into a parking-lot altercation. He physically threatened his athletic director.
And the university has disciplined him a grand total of one time.
Knight's behavior says more about his real character than anything he says.
But his continued survival says more about fans and sports in society than about the coach himself.