INDIANAPOLIS – The world is a strange place today, a sadder place, a little emptier. Bob Knight didn’t go easily, as you knew he wouldn’t. He has been in hospice care among family for days, weeks, longer, death reaching for his hand and Knight smacking it away because nobody touches Bob Knight. Not until he’s ready to go.
He was ready Wednesday. Knight died, according to a post on bobknight.com, a website that represents Knight and his foundation. Indiana later announced his death before a women’s exhibition game at Assembly Hall. He was 83. It leaves the rest of us to grapple with a legacy of greatness punctuated by perfection but punctured by controversy.
There are two kinds of worlds, and today we straddle them both: One with Bob Knight, and one without him.
There are two kinds of basketball, too. The game played before Bob Knight showed up in Bloomington in 1971. And the basketball that came next.
Bobby Knight: Three titles, a thrown chair, a salad bar
He coached the last undefeated team in men’s Division I basketball, the 1976 Indiana Hoosiers. And he threw a chair across the court against Purdue in 1985.
He coached the 1981 IU basketball team to his second national title. And in 1988 he answered a question from NBC’s Connie Chung about dealing with stress by saying, ”I think if rape is inevitable, relax and enjoy it.”
He coached the 1987 IU basketball team to the national title. And was suspended in 2000 for gripping IU player Neil Reed by the throat at…
