I Am Out On Bobby Knight

Peter Bobrinskoy
Sep 1, 2018 · 3 min read

Before I write this, it needs to be noted that Season on the Brink, the John Feinstein book about the 1986 Indiana University basketball season, is my favorite book I have ever read. The book painted Indiana basketball coach Bobby Knight as a very likable sports figure to get behind. He was shown as a basketball genius who made discipline the base of his teams.

After first reading Season on the Brink, I loved Bobby Knight and everything he stood for. The graduation rates of his players were always the top in the country, he always ran a clean program, and was a genius when it came to the game of basketball.

However, the thing that truly made Bobby Knight so special was his success. He won. There is no other way about it. 902 wins, 11 Big 10 championships, five Final Fours, and three national championships. He succeeded as a basketball coach by flirting with the line of genius and madness.

However, the compilation of the last three years has shown how flawed of a human being Bobby Knight has become.

The biggest thing that has drawn me away from Bobby Knight has been the stubbornness of returning to Indiana. Despite the fact that he was filled of controversy after controversy, the Indiana basketball community has done everything they could have to welcome back and honor the man who gave them so much success. However, instead of accepting the honor and having the court of Assembly Hall named after him, he decides to go on the Dan Patrick Show and wish all of the people at the Indiana administration were dead.

Despite the fact that Bobby Knight has been one of the most controversial stars in all of sports for the last 40 years, the cult that Knight has behind him is incredible. What makes no sense is why though? For any Indiana basketball fan who is still in defense of Bobby Knight, take a look at all of the things he has done to give the school the middle finger all of these years. First, he snubbed his own ceremony when he was inducted into the Indiana University Sports Hall of Fame in 2009. Second, instead of going to the 40-year anniversary ceremony that Indiana had for the undefeated 1976 national championship team he coached, he decided to attend archrival Purdue University’s fundraiser five weeks later. Finally, during the 2016 President Election when Knight was giving an endorsement speech in Michigan, he said to the crowd, “We beat your ass most every time we played you.” Referring to Ohio State and not Indiana. The Indiana basketball community wants to welcome Bobby Knight so badly and have gone out of their way time and time again to get back on good terms. However, Knight has refused every single time.

There is a difference between being a proud individual and being a 5-year-old holding a grudge. Bobby Knight choked a player, lied about it, and then went on the Dan Patrick Show saying he wished the administration at Indiana was dead. The question I am asking is that is Bobby Knight too stubborn or were John Feinstein, his players, Indiana basketball fans, me, and many others simply just wrong about Bobby Knight in the first place? Did we love a guy too much for being a winner and a character that we just ignored the fact that he is on his third wife, allegedly sexually harassed women, choked a player, allegedly punched a player on the back of the head, and squeezed a player’s groin?

Bobby Knight still has time to make things right. For all of the hardship and controversy he started over the years, the Indiana basketball community is still open to welcoming you back. It should not have to be this hard.

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