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Bob Knight Still Has No Interest in Mending His Relationship With Indiana
For the first time since ESPN hired him to wear a sweater, pretend that Kentucky and John Calipari don’t exist, and do everything in his power to avoid dropping F-bombs on live television, Bob Knight was part of a broadcast team for an Indiana basketball game on Monday night for the Hoosiers’ 13-point win over Georgia. This was understandably a big deal for Hoosiers fans, since Knight is Indiana basketball and because the legendary coach’s parting of ways with the school in 2000 was as amicable as a political discussion on YouTube. Even though the school was probably justified in its firing of Knight, the decision to do so was universally criticized by the Indiana fan base, and Knight himself reacted as if university president Myles Brand pooped in his mailbox.
Twelve years later, very few people currently affiliated with Indiana athletics have connections to the Knight era. Because of this, most Hoosiers fans have their fingers crossed that the university’s new administration can get Knight back on campus to honor him in some fashion. But based on what I saw Monday night, it won’t happen anytime soon. As far as I could tell, if Knight had it his way, an unknowing viewer could have watched the entire Indiana-Georgia game without any idea that Knight had ever coached at Indiana.
When the elephant in the room was addressed after the first timeout, ESPN showed a few pictures of Knight celebrating his three national championships at Indiana, prompting Dan Shulman to ask what Knight remembers about those teams. In what should come as no surprise, Knight deflected the question and talked about how all he remembers now is his latest fishing trip. Shulman then insisted that Knight put all jokes aside and reminisce about coaching at Indiana, and even then Knight still didn’t say anything like what someone who was willing to forget the past would say.
Truth be told, the only school Knight seems to have any interest in having a relationship with is Ohio State, Indiana’s conference rival to the east and the school where he won a national championship as a player in 1960. When OSU celebrated the 50th anniversary of that team in 2010, Knight not only showed up for the ceremony, but he also gave a lengthy speech and addressed the crowd at halftime the next day during a game against Minnesota. A year later, Ohio State awarded Knight a University Ambassador medal at halftime of a game against Lamar, and Knight showed up again and spoke to the crowd for a few minutes. This year, he was inducted into the Ohio State Athletics Hall of Fame, and he even agreed to appear in the pregame video that’s shown before all Buckeyes home games this season.
Sure, Knight might just be a proud alum who’s grateful to be honored, but I can’t help thinking that some part of his frequent public visits to Ohio State (and Ohio State’s insistence to repeatedly honor him) are meant to serve as double middle fingers to Indiana, especially considering that Knight has been a mentor to Thad Matta the past few years and Matta has a very real and personal rivalry with Tom Crean.
So yeah, Hoosiers fans, don’t hold your breath.
