American basketball is in mourning after the announcement of the death of Bobby Knight at 83 years old. Hospitalized since April, the former coach of the United States and Indiana passed away near his family, a few days after his birthday.
Born in 1940 in Ohio, Robert Montgomery Knight was a true coaching legend, and after a playing career at Ohio State which saw him win the NCAA title in 1960, he began coaching at US Army at age 25. It was there that he learned the quasi-military methods that would make his reputation, and that he earned his nickname: The General. At the time, he became the youngest coach in NCAA history.
He makes Michael Jordan cry!
In 1971, he joined Indiana University, which he led to the title in 1976, 1981 and 1987 with basketball based on movement and above all man-to-man defense. Bobby Knight hated the zone and the attack. It had to run and move! Considered the equal of a Dean Smith or a Mike Krzyzewski, Knight was named coach of the United States for the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
In his team, a certain Michael Jordan, but also Pat Ewing and Chris Mullin, and he is already creating controversy by preferring his player Steve Alford to John Stockton or Charles Barkley! It was during his Olympic Games that he made Michael Jordan cry in the locker room after a victory against Germany…
Assaults, insults, suspensions…
The winningest coach in NCAA history from 2007 to 2011 with 902 victories, Knight has unfortunately marred his record with numerous controversies and crazy gestures. As early as 1973, he got noticed by hitting an opposing coach at the end of a match! In 1985, he threw a chair on the field against Purdue. He was also accused of having whipped a player in training, of having headbutted another during a time-out, and even of having strangled one at training! Generally speaking, Knight spends his time insulting his players, opposing coaches and referees. Each of his interviews is a swear fest!
Tired of these escapades and these controversies, the management of Indiana University separated in 2000, and Knight then joined Texas Tech. He will remain there for six years, and for the first time in its history, the university will string together five seasons with 20 victories or more. In 2008, he bowed out, and for a long time, he refused to return to Indiana, upset at having been fired for disciplinary reasons. Finally, he will make a surprise appearance in 2020. At his side, Isiah Thomas, his playmaker in the early 80s.
He demanded that his players be good students
Considered as ” an idol » by Tom Izzo and Coach K., whom he had under his command at Army, Knight was a complex character, capable of refusing to collect his salary at Texas Tech because the team was not good, but also to demand that all his players be good students, because education was the number 1 criterion for his recruitment. A method that made him miss many stars, but he absolutely insisted that academic results come before basketball.
Annoyed at not having been inducted into the Hall Of Fame in 1987, he then refused to allow the selection committee to nominate him in the following years. Finally, in 2011, he agreed to enter and for once, he left his famous red sweater in the locker room.
