Remembering Bob Knight: Infamous outbursts, controversial moments that defined Indiana’s legendary coach

On Senior Day at Indiana University in 1994, Bob Knight, already enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame as probably the most best possible faculty coaches in historical past, but freshly embroiled in controversy after headbutting a participant, grabbed a microphone in entrance of a sold-out Assembly Hall crowd and delivered a message that was once each brash and exceedingly on-brand.

“When my time on earth is gone, and my activities here are passed, I want [them] to bury me upside down, and my critics can kiss my ass,” he stated. 

Given the cases, it was once a shocking display of defiance for Knight, who died this week at 83 years outdated. Yet in some ways, to those that knew Knight or adopted his profession both carefully or from afar, it was once … no longer surprising in any respect. Knight was once as defiant an individual as he was once dominant a coach. His profession checkered with successes but additionally controversies that in the long run resulted in his ouster from the college in 2000.

Here’s a glance again at one of the most controversies and outbursts that assisted in shaping his years in Bloomington, Indiana. 

1. The head-butt

Indiana’s SID later defined it away as an twist of fate, nevertheless it was once what it was once: A head-butt. Knight collided with freshman Sherron Wilkerson all through a recreation vs. Michigan State in March, 1994; IU stated it was once an twist of fate that took place after Wilkerson seemed up. Accidental or no longer, the head-butt got here simply after Knight pulled Wilkerson from the sport for committing a string of errors in an eventual 94-78 loss. 

2. The notorious chair toss

During a series by which he (reasonably vehemently) disagreed with a choice made all through a recreation vs. Purdue in 1985, Knight flung a chair around the court docket and earned an early commute again to the locker room. The ejection got here at the heels of a hectic interplay with an respectable that earned him a technical, and then Knight answered through grabbing his chair at the bench and throwing it around the court docket within the course of an respectable and a Purdue participant who was once on the free-throw line.

3. Knight attire down NCAA respectable

It wasn’t simply Knight’s personal gamers or recreation officers who drew the ire of the Hall of Fame coach. In 1995, Knight publicly dressed down an NCAA respectable following a first-round NCAA Tournament loss to Missouri after the respectable incorrectly instructed the media that Knight would no longer be to be had for a press convention following the defeat.

“We’ve only got two people who are going to tell you I’m not going to be here. One is our SID, and the other is me,” stated Knight. “Who the hell told ya I wasn’t going to be here? I’d like to know.”

The NCAA respectable attempted to diffuse the placement and stay the click convention transferring, however that simplest additional annoyed Knight.

“I’ll handle this the way I want to handle it now that I’m here,” stated Knight. “You f—– it up to begin with. Now just sit there or leave. I don’t give a shit what you do.”

4. Knight chokes Neil Reed at apply

In a 2000 article printed at CNN Sports Illustrated, former IU participant Neil Reed accused Knight of choking him all through a tradition 3 years prior. Knight denied the declare, however video of the incident later surfaced, main IU to high quality Knight and put him on a zero-tolerance coverage after earlier controversies. The choking incident was once the start of the top for Knight, who was once was once fired six months later for a separate incident for violating his zero-tolerance coverage.

5. Cracking the whip … actually

Knight was once a no-nonsense coach who ran a good send, however he as soon as used an beside the point prop to painting his demeanor. During a press convention within the 1992 NCAA Tournament, Knight confirmed up with a whip, proficient to him through his gamers, which he cracked as he he quipped. He then used the whip at the again facet of Calbert Cheaney, who’s Black, drawing grievance from the Albuquerque bankruptcy of the NAACP. In the next recreation, Cheaney playfully pulled a towel out and made a whipping movement against Knight, reputedly downplaying the incident. At best possible, the prop was once problematic. At worst, it was once offensive. 

6. Knight yanks Hoosiers from recreation vs. Soviet Union

In the warmth of the general years of the Cold War, Knight and IU scheduled an early-season recreation vs. the Soviet Union in 1987, which resulted in but any other controversy that prolonged previous Bloomington. 

Because of a war of words with an respectable with whom he had a historical past, Knight pulled his staff off the court docket vs. the Soviets all through the sport after he was once slapped with a 3rd technical foul and an ejection. Knight refused to depart the ground and stated if he needed to move, so, too, did his staff. The respectable took him at his phrase, and the sport resulted in a forfeit. 

Knight later apologized to IU lovers for forfeiting the sport only some mins into the second one part.

“As far as taking the team off the floor — there are things I wish I could do over again,” stated Knight. “That is one of them.”

7. Offensive feedback on rape

During an interview with NBC’s Connie Chung in 1988, Knight was once requested how, as a a success coach, he handled rigidity. His reaction: “I think that if rape is inevitable, relax and enjoy it.”

Knight added that he did not need to be misinterpreted, however the injury was once already finished. 

“That’s just an old term that you’re going to use,” he stated. “The plane’s down, so you have no control over it. I’m not talking about that, about the act of rape. Don’t misinterpret me there. What I’m talking about is, something happens to you, so you have to handle it now.”

The offensive analogy drew grievance from IU’s president and the place of job of girls’s affairs.