End Of An Era

It's a rare occasion that I write about basketball. In fact, it's never happened on this blog. But today is an excpetion, as the last active sports person and icon from my childhood, Coach Bobby Knight, has retired. I'm not sure how I really even became a fan. I didn't follow much college basketball as a kid, and to root for a controversial figure who coached in the middle of Indiana seems odd to me now. But something about him being such a fiery figure at the dawn of the "Sportscenter" Era must have drawn me to root for Coach Knight.

And I never changed my mind about what a great coach he is, even though he seemed to constantly draw negative attention with his outbursts of anger against anyone who rubbed him the wrong way. He threw chairs, he cursed worse than a sailor, he berated some players; worst of all, he once put his hands on a player's neck. Some would say he choked him, though the video was grainy and somewhat inconclusive. After too many incidents, he was run out of Indiana in 2000. He somehow resurrected his career in the depths of unknown Texas Tech.

For all of his personal shortcomings, no one could argue about Knight's abilities as a coach. Over 40 years at Army, Indiana, and Texas Tech, Knight has had a graduation rate over 90% with his players, just an astronical number that is never seen in college basketball. He always put education first and if a player slacked off on his studies, Knight would kick him off the team- no matter how good he was. He won 902 wins as a Division I coach, easily an NCAA record; he also won 3 NCAA championships, which puts him in elite company. Hopefully, when the final story about Bob Knight is written, it will include all of these good things as well.