1. Welcome to SportsJournalists.com, a friendly forum for discussing all things sports and journalism.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register for a free account to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Access to private conversations with other members.
    • Fewer ads.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Anybody covered Bob Knight?

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by TheMethod, Jan 9, 2008.

  1. Bob Cook

    Bob Cook Active Member

    As much as a prick as Knight can be to the media, he's as media-savvy as they come. He acts like a prick, and I mean "acts," because he knows he can get away with it. He knew that especially during his peak at Indiana, where it was guaranteed that no matter what he did to the media (or anyone else), the IU faithful and the state of Indiana would stand behind him. (Ask Russ Brown about that.) I was at the IDS when new IU president Thomas "Bow Tie" Ehrlich had the temerity to say that Knight's "if rape is inevitable, relax and enjoy it" joke might have been a tad distasteful, and that's what led to Knight swinging his enormous coaching dick in the direction of New Mexico that summer -- to let Ehrlich know who was boss. Sometimes the press conference stuff was enjoyable, like when he'd spend the whole time talking about fishing, and sometimes he was a total boor, especially to women reporters. (Ask Beth Harris about that.)

    BTW, someone referenced earlier about Knight not talking to the student paper. The story I had always heard was that there were three things that led to Knight freezing out the IDS from one-on-one interviews, though I can only remember two: an IDS reporter wrote about what happened in a closed practice (after Knight had granted him access), and the IDS ran a photo of Knight flipping the bird to a cyclist he had hit with his car on campus.

    I must say, though, that covering Knight taught me a lot about how to be a journalist -- not just for sports, either. With Knight not talking to you one-to-one, or making players available that way, or spending time yammering about fishing, you had to get creative in how you covered the beat. It taught me an early lesson that just because a major source doesn't grant you access, it doesn't mean you can't break stories (while I was sports editor at the IDS one summer, we broke the story of Knight's engagement to his current wife) or be well-informed. In fact, sometimes it can be a help, because you start looking in other places you never would have otherwise.

    Also, people who knew you weren't in Knight's pocket might be far more open with you. I remember Knight pulling Jay Edwards' scholarship on July 4 weekend (see what I mean about Knight being media-savvy?), and though I couldn't get to Knight, I had a long and entertaining conversation with Edwards' mother, who told me she didn't want to talk to anyone else because they were in too deep with Knight.
     
  2. Highway 101

    Highway 101 Active Member

    Knight, Parcells and Tony LaRussa are good friends. How'd you like to be the fourth in that golfing group?
     
  3. txscoop

    txscoop Member

    Knight, Parcells and Tony LaRussa are good friends. How'd you like to be the fourth in that golfing group?
    [/quote]

    Don't forget Don Haskins
     
  4. Agree entirely.

    No need to say, "He's a prick, but...". Nope, he's just a prick.

    Didn't Hitler dote on puppies and children? He picked up a paint brush now and then. Doesn't change much.
     
  5. OnTheRiver

    OnTheRiver Active Member

    Might be a Godwin's Law record -- third page of a thread.
     
  6. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    On a Bob Knight thread it was inevitable. Might as well sit back and enjoy it.
     
  7. OnTheRiver

    OnTheRiver Active Member

    Well done.
     
  8. I just think there's a journalism Stockholm-syndrome in which beat writers feel the need to defend or make excuses for people they cover.

    Bob Knight is a bad person. Period.
     
  9. Tom Petty

    Tom Petty Guest

    i'm still waiting for someone to come on and say, "but that's just bobby ..."

    if you have to say, "but that's just ..." for any person, just fill in the blank with the words "a prick."
     
  10. NCScrub

    NCScrub Member

    Knight was fantastic last year before Texas Tech's NCAA opener in Winston-Salem. He might have been the very first coach to speak on the day before the first round, but it was so worth it to get there at like 11 a.m.

    This is copy-pasted from Dan Steinberg's DC Sports Blog

    ******************

    Bobby Knight holds court

    Well, Bob Knight certainly set the standard that all the other coaches will have to live up to today. (Aside from his sweater choice - diamond pattern, in varying shades of brown -- which was questionable at best.)

    He touched on a range of issues, from tournament size to the quality of officiating to the NBA's age limit. Some highlights:

    He thinks the ideal tournament size is 32 teams, chosen by a computer. No automatic bids. The tournament committee should be comprised of former basketball coaches, like Dean Smith, John Thompson, Jud Heathcote, instead of athletic directors - "Nothing else in society that's important do you have amateurs making decisions." He thinks the current tournament chair, Princeton AD and former (Dartmouth!) hoops coach Gary Walters should be the permanent chair, because he's bright and he knows basketball.

    He thinks officials should be limited to working three games a week. He says that he watched an ACC game in which there were 27 uncalled walking violations.

    But the unquestioned highlight of the session was his exchange with Bob Ryan, the Boston Globe columnist and part-time PTI star.

    Ryan: Coach, what do you most like about the make-up of this team, and what concerns you most about them?

    Knight: Where the hell did you get that tan?

    Ryan: Florida. Spring training, hanging out with your buddy LaRussa. So what do you like most about your team?

    Knight: What did you like most about the Cardinals?

    Ryan: Albert Pujols.

    Knight: That's a brilliant answer for a writer. I'm not kidding you, that is really good. You kind of stuck it to me with that answer. I didn't think you could come up with anything that good.

    [Knight proceeds to answer Ryan's question.]

    Knight: I'm not sure that's as good an answer as Albert Pujols. It kind of pissed me off that you came up with such a good answer. I had a lot of great retorts, but you screwed me out of all of them.

    Knight ended his presser by saying that he'll be on his deathbed, and his wife will ask him what he's thinking about, and he'll say, "You cannot believe that son of a [expletive] Ryan came up with Pujols." As he walked down the hall, you could still hear him say, "Pujols! Pujols!"
     
  11. Tom Petty

    Tom Petty Guest

    "Coach" followed by a question.

    the prick owns college hoops writers.
     
  12. da man

    da man Well-Known Member

    That shit about not calling a coach, ``coach,'' is ridiculous. Some people use that for all coaches. Hell, I've interviewed people who called me coach. It doesn't necessarily mean anyone has anyone wrapped around anything.
     
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page