Bob Knight Ran A Clean Program at IU...

[Van_Slyke_CF]

[url]http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaab/news;_ylt=Av3l0DSnQttvegyNrg4Q FErevbYF?slug=ap-t25-indiana-sampson&prov=ap&type=lg ns[/url]


Bobby Knightran a spotlessly clean program at Indiana University for decades. His successors-the black coach, Mike Davis, andNative American son, Kelvin Sampson, have nowblackened the reputation ofIU basketball with their failures on and off the court. Davis had success for one year with Coach Knight`s players and then totally screwed up the program, including a losing season. Sampson hasn`t done much better and has now seemingly positioned the program forNCAA punishment for rules infractions. The Hall of Fame coach, Bob Knight, left IU fans a legacy of decadesof success on the court and his student-athletes in the classroom, but now losers likeKelvin Sampson have turned IU`s Assembly Hall into a Hall of Shame. Shame on you, IU officials and all others connected with the school who ran off Coach Knight. Things haven`t gotten better since he was unceremoniously kicked out of town,have they? You`llregret it even more after the NCAA gets finished with you if the preliminary reports ofSampson`s transgressions areanything to go by. Probablyjust the tip of the iceberg....


I didn`t always agree withCoach Knight`sactions on the sidelines and at some pressconferences, but you can`t argue withhow his players turned out-other than Isaiah Thomas.And thisstoryis more proof of his greatness.

 

[jaxvid]

And he's available!

Coach Knight oten used white players which make for a "cleaner" program.

Re: Isiah Thomas, Thomas left Indiana early because he hated Coach Knight, so I don't blame Knight for the a-hole that is Isiah Thomas.

 

[white is right]

Knight showed that predominately white or significantly white teams could win without cheating. I wonder what he could have done with Euro/South American players. As for Sampson he has had a "trail of tears" wherever he has gone. A corrupt coach never changes his ways. He is a Native/Black version of Tark the Shark...

Edited by: white is right

 

[mrjohnnynofear]

IU knew what they were getting with Sampson. I am not suprised about that. Mike Davis had a up and down tenure. But at least he tried to run a clean program. I could smell the possible sanctions coming in the door with Sampson.

I doubt that Bob Knight will be coming back to coaching immediately. He probably needs a break. And although the fans at IU LOVE him, the Board would not be as welcoming. But Bob Knight was a man of character, respect, and heaven forbid if a recruit asked him for some under the table incentives!!!!

. IU now has a mostly african-american lineup there now. A pretty decent team I have to say. But some of the fundamentals are lacking. They play Michigan St. tonight and it will be a good test for them. I believe IU has a horrible record against top 10 teams since 06. Will be interesting to see what happens if Sampson is found guilty and fired. Who could be the next coach?

 

[GreatLakeState]

Did they clash at IU? Surely they did. They're both hotheads with the drive
of champions.

Here are some examples of Isiah's "hatred" of Knight, from a 2000 online
chat:

From BadBoys: Being a former Indiana great, what is your stance on the
Bobby Knight situation? Describe YOUR experience with him.
Isiah Thomas: I am pro-Bobby Knight. I'm happy that he was able to
maintain and keep his job. I had good experiences at Indiana. Myself, I
am, just I'm sure like he is, looking forward to following the rules and
being responsible.

From Guest in Los Angeles: Will he be able to coach well under these
conditions?
Isiah Thomas: I think that the Bobby Knight that most people see is the
one that you get the highlight reel from. The one we all know and have
watched coach, his ability to communicate verbally will far exceed any
restrains placed on his coaching ability.

From CfbStew: Isiah, has your opinion of your former coach Bob Knight
been changed at all by some of the allegations that have surfaced?
Isiah Thomas: No, if anything it's cemented my perception of his as a
good coach and person. A lot of time what's happens, the traditions that
our parents used when raising kids in the past - Bob Knight has lasted so
long I would say that the conditions of coaching has changed. Bob Knight
came from the era of Lombardi, Parcells and Schembechler - ones who
demanded that you take responsibility for your actions. Now coaches
tolerate and accept all sorts of things. Things I'm proud coach Knight has
never accepted - even his own behavior.

Last week from New York Daily News:

The player Bob Knight called "Pee-Wee" wasn't at all stunned that the
legendary college basketball coach suddenly resigned Monday night,
ending one of the most successful and controversial careers in the history
of the sport.
"It doesn't surprise me at all because you give so much to the game, when
the well is empty, the well is empty," said Isiah Thomas, the star of
Knight's 1981 NCAA championship team at Indiana. "It's never on your
timetable when you're all-in. He gave his heart and soul to the game of
basketball. When the time's up, the time's up. It's not on an NCAA
schedule, when you give that much. You're all-in and he was all-in, every
day."

Thomas planned on calling Knight yesterday after practice as the Knicks
prepared for tonight's game against Indiana at the Garden.
"Outside of my mother, he's had the biggest impact of my life," Thomas
said.
A star at St. Joseph's outside Chicago, Thomas was all set to go to either
local powerhouse DePaul, coached by the legendary Ray Meyer, or Iowa,
where he had attended Lute Olson's camps every summer since the sixth
grade.

But Mary Thomas had other ideas, making the decision for him. In Knight,
she saw herself, a strict disciplinarian who would get the most out of her
son by riding herd on him.
"That's how my mom raised me," Thomas said. "(Knight) was a lot softer
on me. She admired his honesty and discipline. At the time, he was one of
only a few coaches who didn't come in and try to bribe my mom. My mom
never took the money. We kept telling her, 'Take the money.'"

At Indiana, Thomas thrived under Knight's iron fist and led the Hoosiers
to the title against North Carolina as a sophomore, in what turned out to
be his final collegiate season. They never ran plays, not even in-bounds
plays, in Knight's motion offense, as the demanding coach insisted his
players learn how to read and react to defenses. About the only time
Knight made specific calls from the bench came when the Hoosiers were
desperate for a basket. Then he'd invariably tell Thomas, "Pee-Wee, get
the ball to (Mike) Woodson."

"If I had to do it all over again," Thomas said, "I wouldn't change a thing
because he was great for me as a coach and he's been great for me after
basketball. The man and the person I am, I don't think I'd be this way had
he not been my coach, father-figure, teacher and everything else.
Everything that I've grown up to be in the sports world, I owe a great deal
to him. He would never let me settle. He was always pushing us and
wanting us to be the best, not only on the court, but also off the court."

 

[jaxvid]

Isiah has changed his tune on his time with Knight several times. Thomas is a manipulative lying phoney. He left IU early and early in his Piston career he refused to talk about his relationship with Knight. Now though it's all nicey nicey, Knight was the hard assed white father Isiah never had, yeah right. Believe it if you want. Remember if Larry Bird wasn't white he would've just been another good basketball player.


I also found this comment:
One of the main reasons Isiah left early was Knight he constantly hounded Thomas for no legitimate reasons while at Indiana.When watching a sports documentary about Isiah this came from his older brothers that Knight tried to bully Thomas's mother into getting him to come to Indiana.Knowing his personality I believe that wholeheartedly but they came to the defense of their mother and told Knight that under no circumstances will we allow you to bully our mother in her home just so you can get your hands on our younger brother

 

[Van_Slyke_CF]

He was always pushing us and
wanting us to be the best, not only on the court, but also off the court."


Yes, Isaiah, Coach Knight helped make you the best player and man you could be. In your case, as a player you were good, as a man off the court and working in the front office and on the sidelines for the Knicks, well, we`ll let your pathetic record speak for itself.

 

[jaxvid]

More Isiah Thomas words of wisdom: In his sexual harassment trial Anucha Browne-Sanders testified that Thomas had told her, he did not care about these "[expletive] white people." (season ticket holders) you know, the whiteys that pay for Thomas and his fellow brutha's ho's, crack, and criminal defense attorneys.

 

[bigunreal]

I'm surprised to see that so many posters here think favorably of Bobby Knight. Imho, this guy was an overgrown adolescent, who was unable to control his temper in public on numerous occasions. He certainly set a horrible example as a coach; throwing those chairs on the floor alone would have gotten him banned for life in any youth sports league.

I also don't remember Knight as a champion of the white athlete. There were 2 white starters on his 1976 championship team. That was certainly not an especially white-friendly number for that era in college basketball. If I recall correctly, the Isiah Thomas-led team had no white starters (maybe 1, can't remember exactly because I simply tuned out games that featured all or nearly all- black teams, which that team was). The team with Steve Alford featured no other white starters, if I remember correctly. Frankly, any coach that was strongly interested in recruiting the obnoxious, overrated, racist Isiah Thomas is not the kind of coach I could ever respect. This is hardly the record of a coach who favors white athletes.

Bobby Knight reminds me very much of longtime Ohio State football coach Woody Hayes. Fortunately for Knight, he never lost his composure to the extent Hayes did, when he ran on the field and tried to tackle an opposing player. Imho, Knight was always a threat to physically attack an opposing player, a referee or his own players (which he was accused of doing on a few occasions).

Knight is clearly not a nice man, by any means. Would any of us want this old guy as a friend? Would any of us respect a middle-aged man who acts like Knight did? Just his anger management issues alone put him in a category where very, very few of his peers (at least the ones outside of prison) are. I won't miss Knight at all. Just because someone is white, we don't have to mindlessly support him, Imho, he is a first-class jerk.