https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UjgGjs-kPA
Author Archives: Kent Sterling
Marriage of Tom Brady to the Dallas Cowboys makes sense only to programmers and producers
Jerry Jones and Tom Brady know they are a terrible pairing, but that doesn’t keep sports media from blathering about it.
The Cowboys already have Dak Prescott as their quarterback, and Tom Brady is unlikely in the extreme to be tantalized by an opportunity to play for “America’s Team.”
No one is his or her right mind believes it is even a remote possibility, so how did this idiotic notion of Brady to the Cowboys start cropping up on talk shows and in digital media?
People who think analytics are used only by NFL, NBA, and MLB general managers don’t understand media and how it works. During a visit to ESPN in Bristol a few years ago, an executive told me, “We are a research company that broadcasts sports.” In other words, ESPN didn’t become ESPN by allowing people to talk about whatever the hell they want.
A quick look at research grading the popularity of NFL assets shows the Cowboys as the most popular team and Tom Brady as the most popular player. They are also among the most hated teams and players. That means when hosts talk about the Cowboys or Brady, consumers listen.
Combine a story with both Brady and the Cowboys, no matter how absurd, and people pay attention.
Stephen A. Smith, current captain of sports media’s USS Preposterous, was one of the few to try to give this story credence, “Put Tom Brady, with his pedigree, his knowledge, his championship experience, in Dallas. I got Ezekiel Elliott behind me running the football. I’ve got this offensive line that’s going to protect me. I’ve got a No. 1 in Amari Cooper. I’ve got a reliable tight end in Jason Witten. I’ve got others as well – Terrance Williams and these boys.”
Never mind that Williams isn’t in football anymore, Witten may retire, and Cooper is a free agent. Smith doesn’t require logic or facts to make profitable noise. He’s great at making the implausible sound rational.
You don’t think Smith – or Mike Greenberg and the cast of Get Up! – just sit around and talk live on network TV about whatever pops into their heads, do you?
The four qualities ESPN and other broadcast outlets shoot for each segment are relevance, authenticity, fun, and creativity. Relevance refers to topic choice, and all successful media outlets study relevant directions for their content.
No sane analyst sees Brady to the Cowboys as realistic or a good idea for either. To prove the point, as I write this, the cast of ESPN’s NFL Live are leading the show with a segment about where Brady fits best. Is it the Patriots? Is it the Chargers? Is it the Raiders? There was no mention of the Cowboys, to the credit of the hosts, but host Suzy Kolber promised more to come in upcoming segments.
As someone who watches ESPN and listens to sports talk radio, you almost certainly wonder why hosts talk about some teams and never about others. The answer is always – ALWAYS – because listeners care more about those topics. How do managers know which topics or teams are most popular? That is their job.
As a radio program director, I would always approach it from two directions – traditional call-out research project by a company that specializes in those things, and advisory panel roundtables where I would ask listeners exactly what they expected from us.
The results were consistent, and we used them as part of the formula to build segments as well as hire hosts.
ESPN used that same methodology on a much larger scale to marry two of the the NFL’s most iconic brands. The result was inane blather, but sometimes that’s the name of the game.
Mel Tucker leaves Colorado for Michigan State – but his players will be forced to stay or sit out
Colorado football coach Mel Tucker will smile all the way to East Lansing and the bank.
Mel Tucker is reportedly leaving Colorado to replace Mark Dantonio as Michigan State’s football coach.
That’s good for Tucker, who will earn a significant raise. It’s good for Michigan State too as it can finally claim it got the guy they wanted all along. It’s not good for assistant coaches at Colorado who be screwed if not retained by the incoming coach or taken by Tucker to Michigan State. Players who believed in Tucker are stuck at Colorado, and that’s not good either.
Saturday afternoon, Tucker tweeted that he was committed to Colorado:
https://twitter.com/Coach_mtucker/status/1226230203451465728?s=20
Four days later, he’s reportedly not committed at all – and off to Michigan State.
I have no problem with Tucker bouncing – either because of his contract or because he’s violating his word to players, coaches, and the university. He has a $3-million buyout, so those are the breaks for Colorado. They negotiated that buyout, and they have to abide by it.
Tucker has a family that will benefit from the move, and he has ambitions that can be satisfied by this move. It’s a rare man that honors a commitment in favor of living his dreams, so that is an unfair standard to enforce.
But for the players who are prohibited from leaving Colorado with their immediate eligibility intact, Tucker’s decision is a miserable step in the wrong direction. Players can transfer, but without a waiver being granted by the NCAA, they are forced to sit out for one year.
Despite an explicit understanding recruits commit to attend a university, most make their decision to attend a school based upon the relationship with the head coach. That relationship is too important for the NCAA to ignore and too one-sided in favor of the university to be considered fair.
This is yet another area of the university – athlete relationship where the adults get a free and lucrative pass, while the athletes on the field, court, ice, course, track, and pitch are forced into a corner where they must nod in agreement, do what they are told, and be thankful for what they get.
What they get is not insignificant, but it pales in comparison to they way cash is flung around by athletic departments belonging to conferences with huge budgets driven by massive media deals.
So Tucker will live his dream by moving to East Lansing, while players and coaches who trusted him will live in limbo within the borders of indentured servitude maintained by NCAA rules.
None of this is to say that Tucker should be bound to Colorado for the duration of his contract. He’s earned the right to work where he likes as long as he (or Michigan State) can satisfy the contract he and Colorado negotiated and signed. It would be nice if players and assistant coaches could trust a tweet posted four days ago, but that clearly is not the world in which we live.
The Big 10 is considering a rule that would allow athletes the freedom to transfer one time with immediate eligibility. That’s a reasonable solution that releases athletes from the penalties waged upon them as unwitting victims of a coach’s dreams coming true.
Maybe we’re about to enter an era where reason is embraced – where what is right is the rule rather than the exception. I know it’s an ambitious dream, but better to cling to a long-shot hope for fairness than embrace the ideology of greed and mandated student-athlete acquiescence.
Philip Rivers will NOT be the Colts next quarterback because Ballard is too smart to sign him
Chris Ballard is in it to win it, and Philip Rivers has not been able to do that in his 16-year career.
Free agent quarterback Philip Rivers will not be signed by the Indianapolis Colts.
Since Rivers and the Chargers announced their intention to split after 16 years, it has been speculated by national media without local insight that the Colts would be the best fit.
The reason has nothing to do with fan distaste for the former Chargers quarterback earned when he dispatched the Colts in the 2008 and 2009 playoffs, or his hyper-competitive histrionics. While true Colts fans loathe Rivers with a unique passion, the reason he will never wear the Horseshoe has nothing to do with that.
It won’t happen because the goal of the organization, according to owner Jim Irsay, is to win the Super Bowl. Not only did Rivers fail to win a Super Bowl throughout his prime in San Diego – he never played in one. No reasonable person can project Rivers as an upgrade so profound for the Colts he leads a team that was 7-9 in 2019 to a Super Bowl?
The Colts focus is not to be an 8-8 or 9-7 team. It’s to build sustainable championship contention. Rivers didn’t bring that to San Diego when he was 28. It’s silly to believe he can be that guy 10 years later.
Want some more basic reasons Rivers won’t be the Colts quarterback in 2020?
- Threw 20 picks last year (third time in his career with picks totaling 20 or more).
- Sacked 34 times in 2019.
- Had a QBR of under 48.9 (50 is perfectly mediocre)
- Jacoby Brissett already costs a minimum of $9-million for 2020, and Rivers would cost a minimum of $16M. Add the salary of a third quarterback who would be drafted to eventually replace Brissett and Rivers, and the quarterback position would become disproportionately expensive to the quality of play.
- Colts GM Chris Ballard is a stalwart believer in mitigating risk by building his roster through the draft, and there is no position more important to a roster than quarterback.
There are a few mitigating factors that make the Colts seem like a potential destination for Rivers. The first and second are that Brissett is almost certain to be replaced as the incumbent starter and Colts coach Frank Reich worked with Rivers from 2013-2015. At least we assume that familiarity is a positive between Reich and Rivers.
But those things we have learned about Ballard during his first three years as general manager would lead to the conclusion that he is far more likely to draft the next starting quarterback rather than in free agency.
Will it be Eason, Love, Fromm, or someone else? Who knows.
Two things will be true once all the silt settles from free agency and the draft – the Colts will have drafted their next quarterback and they will not trade up into the top five to do it.
The draft capital necessary to move up from 13 to five is so substantial that if the resulting pick craps out or gets injured, it will kill Colts championship hopes for years. Ballard is not the kind of GM to take that level of risk.
If Ballard went to a casino, he would be at the table for hours, employing the system he exhaustively researched to give him the best chance to win. Others walk up, shoot their wad and go home broke. Ballard is disciplined and measured giving himself the best chance at a small edge against the house.
If you want to know what Ballard will do next, eliminate the riskiest option and then the next riskiest. Keep at it until you are left with choices where the downside is the most minimal. That’s where Ballard will strike.
Rivers isn’t a risk – he’s a sure loser given what the Colts’ goals are. Ballard will see that and avoid it.
Major League Baseball threatens to jump the shark with complex postseason expansion
Rob Manfred is paid to grow the game as MLB commissioner, but a cash grab through expanding the playoffs might do just the opposite.
MLB’s proposed new playoff system is a complicated cash grab from greedy pirates whose thirst for cash is unquenchable.
Head pirate Rob Manfred appears to be a man unafraid of change if it nets owners a few bucks. Sometimes that’s a good thing, sometimes not.
File this proposed change to baseball’s playoff system as a big steaming pile in the ‘sometimes not’ file.
Here’s a thumbnail of the complicated changes – if such a thing is possible:
- There will be three division winners and four wild cards from each league for a total of 14 teams in this convoluted mad scramble to the World Series.
- The team with the best record in each league automatically qualifies for the divisional round.
- The remaining division champs and the wild card team with the best record would host wildcard round games.
- The division champ with the second best overall record would get its choice of the wild card teams with the second, third, and fourth best records as its opponent in the first round.
- The division champ with the third best overall record would choose its opponent from the remaining two wild cards. The wild card team not selected by the division champs would play against the wild card team with the best record..
- The end of the first round would leave each league with four remaining teams competing in the divisional round. From there, everything is the same as it is today.
Maybe I’m not terribly bright, but I developed a searing headache as I had wrote and re-wrote those steps four times to get the scenarios correct.
This change, not surprisingly, is motivated by baseball’s unquenchable desire for cash. It serves no other purpose. More games, more cash. And the players union won’t be upset because more teams in the playoffs means more players getting a playoff share. The owners love it because playoff shares for these nationally televised single games are less than what many rosters earn for a regular season game.
It’s a win-win for everyone but the fans who will get weary trying to figure out how the hell this crazy system works, whether their favorite team will qualify, and whom they will battle in a play-in game. It will make the regular season less important, and it will challenge the longstanding (old) fans to adapt to yet another postseason format.
There are parallels between this playoff schematic and the NASCAR points system that underwent changes a few years ago. Races are now run in stages where points are awarded. It used to be that races involved a start and then checkered flags. The car in front won. NASCAR was simplicity itself. There was nothing better on a Sunday than laying on the couch watching cars drive fast in circles. Now, at least in part because of the insanely complex point system, TV ratings are down and attendance at many venues has plummeted. The Brickyard 400 used to sell-out the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Now, empty seats easily outnumber the fans, and I watch something else while on the couch each Sunday.
Expanding the playoffs is a cash grab, and thinking there are no consequences is dangerous. Baseball is both driven and hamstrung by its respect for history. Turning the playoffs into an all-inclusive battle royale is as shortsighted as juicing the balls to create more excitement through additional home runs. After all, if home runs aren’t rare, their value diminishes.
At some point, adults in baseball’s boardroom need to stand up and say, “Enough!” Fans are dopey, but even they eventually feel manipulated by greedy thug owners who keep squeezing them for more and more cash.
Major League Baseball is dangerously close to becoming the corporate equivalent of those tourists at the Grand Canyon who creep closer and closer to the edge of a cliff to take a unique selfie. Every once in awhile one of them goes a step too far and plunges 1,000 feet to his or her doom.
More is not always better. If baseball enacts this plan, it might learn that lesson the hard way.
Archie Miller’s words need to be backed up by actions for his leadership to be respected
Most Mondays, Archie Miller promises change. Fans are tired of the talk without action.
“At some point, you have to draw the line. If you don’t want to be a part of winning, you’re not going to be a part of what we’re doing,” Archie Miller on his radio show, Monday, February 10, 2020.
That line needed to be drawn in December when Indiana’s flaws and disconnectedness were obvious despite winning all but two games before the first of the year.
In fact, that line needed to be drawn long before that – beginning with the recruiting process when the coach and player relationship begins to form.
A team becomes what a coach tolerates just as a business becomes what the owner or GM tolerates. Indiana has become what Miller has tolerated – which is a not very good team with disparate parts that seem to be operating in opposition to one another.
Miller has claimed to be frustrated with his team, and who can blame him? Given the quote above from last night’s Archie Miller Show, we can infer he’s not happy with the buy-in from his roster. As with bosses at any level, frustration is owned by the man in the mirror. Frustration is created by a lack of control. It is corrected by a cycle of demand and accountability. That’s called effective leadership.
Without accountability, demands are ignored. When demands are ignored, a culture of mediocrity becomes entrenched. That’s where Indiana Basketball is languishing.
Indiana needs to become Miller’s team, whatever that means to Miller, and whatever it takes to get it there. Right now, clearly it is not. Until Miller takes control, the Hoosiers will continue to wobble.
We’re not in the room or gym, so it’s impossible for fans and media to understand exactly what’s going on within the Indiana Basketball program. It’s unfathomable Miller is the only guy with say over his roster or discipline of his team. Why would anyone put himself through the living hell of this cycle of watching the same players behave in the same way and achieving the same results?
This isn’t necessarily an indictment specific to Miller. We can’t conclude he’s the only one responsible for this atmosphere of tolerance, but his name is on the door. He’s the guy earning over $3-million for running the show, so he needs to run it. Fans are thirsty for anything resembling leadership, and they have grown tired of platitudes. There are probably a significant number of players who feel the exact same way.
Whatever is happening in Bloomington – it needs to change. No more words. Action speaks to players who become teams. Action will also speak to Indiana fans, who crave progress if not excellence.
The time for Miller to demand the Hoosiers become a team was nearly three years ago, but I’ll settle for today.
Five reasons conversations at Nick’s about Archie Miller being fired are waaaay premature
Archie has won at a level fans like, nor has he hit the stump to sell his vision. That combination has fans antsy. He hopes his team can turn the corner like they did last year.
I hear you out there, Indiana fans. You’re tired of the losses. You saw Bob Knight at Assembly Hall and all your synapses started firing. Visions of championships, excellence, and toughness started dancing in your brain.
Indiana’s basketball season took a hard turn south a couple of weeks ago with 1:27 seconds left against Big 10 leader Maryland. The Hoosiers led by six and enjoyed a 5-3 Big 10 record in that moment.
As Maryland scored the final seven points in Bloomington, the nightmare began. It has continued through the following three games – road losses to Penn State and Ohio State followed by a loss at home to Purdue on Saturday with Knight and his boys as the halftime act.
So now, Indiana is 5-7 with a Thursday home game looming against Iowa. With a loss to the Hawkeyes, a path to an NCAA Tournament bid becomes difficult to plot. Indiana’s hasn’t been to the NCAAs since 2016, so Indiana fans are getting anxious – to say the least.
Some fans are downright angry. They see Miller as intimidated by players – a coach afraid to hold his roster accountable to behavioral demands. The result is passionless and joyless basketball against teams willingness to ball out. That has brought mediocrity to Bloomington for an unsettlingly long stretch.
Four straight years outside the NCAA hasn’t happened for Indiana Basketball since a five-year period that ended in 1971-1972. In 1971 and 1972, it’s very likely the Hoosiers would have qualified if the tourney field was 68 as it is today. Quinn Buckner and Scott May are in their mid-60s today. They were not yet IU freshmen the last time IU was absent from the Big Dance for this long.
People are asking whether it might be a good idea for IU’s new athletic director, whomever it is, to seek a new architect for the basketball program. Here are five great reasons he or she should stay the course with Archie Miller:
5 – Crean. It might have been quicker to pivot the program by cleaning house when Miller took over from Tom Crean, but Miller is halfway through executing a slow cultural turn class by class. Winning with a group of players recruited by the previous regime can be tough, and it has been with Miller. It’s hardly Crean’s fault that Miller is coaching his recruits, but those guys either haven’t adjusted to Miller, or Miller has not adjusted to them.
4 – Season isn’t over yet. It appears Indiana has wobbled into entrenched lethargy, but fans thought the same thing last season when the Hoosiers lost 12-of-13 games. The Hoosiers bounced back after that horror show by winning four of their last five. Let’s wait until the season ends before embracing our renowned irrationality.
3 – Buyout. Miller’s buyout is 100% of the remaining money through the expiration of his deal in 2024. That buyout lapses after the 2021-2022 season. Indiana is not historically eager to spend a bunch of money on a coach no longer employed by the university. There is a reason Miller wanted five guaranteed years, and it’s the same reason Indiana agreed to it. It’s fair to wait until a coach has a roster filled with his recruits before he’s finally judged.
2 – Recruiting. I’m all about Miller recruiting the best players in Indiana and Ohio who fit his culture (although we aren’t sure of the cultural definition yet). Getting Romeo Langford, Trayce Jackson-Davis, Armaan Franklin, Jeremy Hunter, Joey Brunk as a grad-eligible transfer, and Damezi Anderson helped IU re-establish a local base that it could draw on for talent. Crean’s relationships in Indiana weren’t strong when he left. Miller has recruited Indiana well, and that will pay off eventually.
1 – Impatience. Miller was hired less than three years ago. If Miller is canned, how many really good coaches would want to talk to IU after seeing the lack of patience that cost Miller? Although Indiana is going to commit $30-$40 million to whomever coaches the Hoosiers through the 2020s, money can’t buy happiness, wins or administration patience (if they fire Miller).
There is a reason I wrote this 48 hours after the loss to Purdue. It took me that long to get over the anger and frustration of watching a fractured team wilt at a place where that never used to happen. Recalibrating my brain to its logical and judicious center took this long.
New Albany celebrates 1980 state runner-up team; Bulldogs lost their last game, but won love of teammates and town
A bunch of guys in their mid-50s who played basketball together at New Albany got today to celebrate their love, not mourn a loss.
You want to know how much people in New Albany (IN) love basketball?
New Albany High School’s boys basketball team that lost the state championship game almost 40 years ago was honored at halftime of today’s win over Columbus East.
They lost, and they were honored after 40 years.
Charlie Vass, one of the assistant coaches for that team, came all the way from El Paso, Texas, to participate. Vass wasn’t sure he understood the invitation when he first got it, “We didn’t win, and they’re honoring the team? I told my wife I would go if more than a couple of the guys were going to be here.”
Not only did all the living players show, minus Dave Bennett, but the manager, statistician, trainer and radio broadcast team came from all over the Midwest. It was a day to celebrate a basketball experience ingrained in the memories of a town that loves high school basketball at a level hard to explain.
I was a senior during that crazy ride of a season where sellouts were a given, not only at home but on the road too as fans caravanned to fill gyms in Bloomington, Madison, Jennings County, Evansville, and all points in between.
It wasn’t just the winning that drove adoration from fans; it was the love of the game and each other that was so obvious among the players through that season.
Basketball is quirky. It can briefly tantalize by rewarding individual excellence, but team greatness is achieved only through selfless collaboration. The 1980 New Albany team understood that, and they taught it to us every time they took the court.
Love for one another can get a team, department or company through a variety of challenges. Basketball’s beauty is in the way it rewards those who understand that, and teaches it to those who pay attention to something other than dunks and crossovers.
It was easier to embrace a “love of the game” basketball ideology in 1980 than it is today. Not only did Magic Johnson set a great example of how to play team basketball as NBA rookies that year, ESPN’s endless celebration of individual highlights was almost entirely unavailable then, the NBA Finals were tape delayed, and theonly social media was passing handwritten notes in class.
Times weren’t just simpler – they were virtually distraction-free.
It’s disingenuous to say New Albany was a southern Indiana basketball machine powered only by love. The Bulldogs were also huge. The starters were 6’0″, 6’9″, 6’5″, 6’8″, and 6’8″. The bench also had four guys 6’5″ or taller. And they were good shooters – really good shooters.
The day after New Albany lost the Broad Ripple in the state championship game, thousands came to the high school gym to celebrate the season and thank the team. Players and fans cried together, not because New Albany lost, but because the ride was over.
The ride that ended 40 years ago still binds the team and fans, and so they came together again today to celebrate. This year’s New Albany team is 12-7 after beating Columbus East 78-40. I hope they took the time to see their counterparts from 40 years ago and understand exactly what they have a chance to build.
If they win a state championship, that’s great. But the true measure of this experience is not measured by trophies raised or nets cut down. It comes on a day like this 40 years from now when they hug, joke and lock eyes in the way only teammates do.
Banners fade, even those that commemorate a season that ends in a loss. Love, though, it lasts forever.
Bob Knight comes back to Assembly Hall for a perfect halftime in the middle of a brutal loss #iubb
Bob Knight, Isiah Thomas, and Randy Wittman enjoy a great moment today at Assembly Hall.
Bob Knight coming back to Assembly Hall didn’t matter to me – until it happened.
To watch a frail Knight walk back onto the court where he built champions tempted me toward sadness until he was magically transformed by the enthusiastic crowd and loving embraces from dozens of his former players into the towering figure long time IU fans remember.
From 1971-2000, Knight was an intimidating and burly presence wherever he went in Bloomington. I remember seeing him with the family of a recruit walking toward me down a hallway in the Indiana Memorial Union. I slid over to a stairway and climbed. I had no idea where it headed – other than away from Knight, who appeared to be an angry 12-foot tall monster.
I’m rarely intimidated. People are people, and after a childhood of being yelled at by a man with easy access to high volume anger – my dad – I was calloused to the potential for negative interactions with almost everyone. For some reason though, that flight of stairs in the Union seemed a very wise choice.
The Knight who required a steadying hand from Quinn Buckner as he walked slowly down a hallway he is more familiar with than any man alive was no longer intimidating – until the crowd roared and his former players enveloped him in a massive collective embrace.
This day came later in Knight’s life than it should have, but that didn’t matter today. Arguing with perfection is folly, and despite the flawed basketball the Hoosiers offered against Purdue, Knight’s return made the day perfect.
There should have been an orderly evolution from Knight to whomever was chosen to replace him when he retired. That didn’t happen because of the actions of a variety of people – including Knight himself – who never missed an opportunity to make days longer for those tasked with managing him, (as though such a thing was possible).
Today, all was forgiven. The university that employed/spurned Knight welcomed back the insubordinate coach who taunted and mocked presidents, trustees and athletic directors with the same passion with which he led teams. Knight finally allowed himself to be adored in a way he has always rejected.
Sadly the halftime celebration was easily the highlight of the day for Hoosier fans, who witnessed another poor performance from a team that has completely unspooled over the last two weeks.
Knight exhorted the crowd to chant “Defense!” immediately after imploring 1987 hero Keith Smart to get in a stance, Both the crowd and Smart wisely complied. Knight left, and so did the defense as IU lost 74-62.
Fans who waited years for Knight to finally come back were thrilled by the pageantry and spectacle of the moment. It was certainly more fun than waiting for the current IU team to defend and score as Knight’s teams did.
Knight came back and if you didn’t care much about it before it happened – watch the video. Whatever you think about Knight, this was a sweet, raucous, rapturous, and momentous afternoon for a man who shared a rare vulnerable moment with those who love him.
Almost 20 years after Bob Knight’s firing, 5 reasons fans still care whether he returns & and another 5 why others don’t
Bob Knight once prowled Assembly Hall with tremendous fury. Tomorrow, he may make a public return. If it happens, some will cheer. Others will avoid the moment.
Maybe Bob Knight comes back to Assembly Hall for tomorrow’s game against Purdue. Maybe not.
These rumors have popped up many times before. This might have roots in truth as Dick Vitale doesn’t do games in Bloomington much anymore, and he’s been banging the drum for Knight to bury the hatchet and come back for years. If not for Knight coming, why would Vitale ask to be assigned to a game between two mediocre Big 10 teams?
Knight and former Purdue coach Gene Keady will be honored at Bankers Life Fieldhouse Saturday night as another of the endlessly cool Hickory celebrations of basketball the Pacers host.
It just kind of makes sense this time around, so the conversation is echoing again among a fanbase searching desperately for something to looking forward to.
For some, Knight’s return to Assembly Hall is the story of an old cranky guy returning to a place he worked for 29 years. It’s barely registers as a blip of their radar. They are either too young to remember when Knight was relevant in college basketball or at IU, or they just don’t care.
Others see Knight’s return as a sign detente is possible between their university and their coach. They continue to cheer for Indiana, but remember with great fondness when the General paced the sidelines, won championships without cheating, and served as an extreme irritant for all opponents who dared enter his Hall.
They saw Knight’s firing as an unjust end they could never forget to an era they never wanted to end.
Here are five reasons those who revere Knight may shed a tear when he walks back into Assembly Hall:
5 – Maybe Knight’s return will allow part of his legacy to return. There has always been a sense that despite ceremonies and statues, Indiana University did not much care for either Knight or those who played for him. While other programs with iconic leaders kept leadership in the family, Indiana has always reached outside Indiana for coaches. Despite the culture of excellence and accountability Knight helped build, IU keeps trying to reinvent the wheel.
4 – Hope that men can change. Even Knight’s biggest fans admit that he is flawed. One of those flaws is pride, and it would be wonderful for them to see Knight embrace the notion that the world and Indiana University do not and did not ever revolve around him. He’s had opportunities to swallow that enormous pride to make an appearance at various university functions to honor the 1976, 1981, and 1987 championship teams. He chose not to. He asked not to be depicted among his players in statues in an effort to deny his existence among them. It would be nice to see Knight embrace his place alongside those players.
3 – The Simon & Garfunkel Dynamic. The 1981 Concert in Central Park didn’t draw 500,000 people because there was a longing to hear the harmonic troubadours croon “Sound of Silence” one more time. They wanted to see old friends become important to one another again. They wanted to witness forgiveness. Assembly Hall is Bob Knight’s Garfunkel. Fans want to see them together again.
2 – IU fans want to say thank you in a very public way. Those who enjoyed the success Knight and his players brought to Bloomington have always wanted to send Knight into his twilight with an ovation. There was the get together in Dunn Meadow after he was fired, but that was hardly an event befitting the end of Knight’s reign. This can finally be the moment where Knight is made aware of the depth of affection many feel for him.
1 – Guilt. Indiana fans who loved Bob Knight have always felt oddly disloyal because Knight made it known that no fan of his could ever be a fan of the university that spurned him. With Knight’s burying the hatchet, they will feel absolved for continuing to care about their university and cheering for their team.
Here are five reasons who are either loathe Knight or are indifferent would rather he not come back:
5 – Loyalty to IU, not Knight. A former player once told me that he responded to Knight’s son Tim criticizing him for attending an IU game after Knight was fired by saying, “I graduated from Indiana University, not the University of Bob Knight!” While there are people who backed Knight in his dispute with IU, there are also those who remained loyal to Indiana and view Knight as a self-indulgent and self-destructive force they avoid.
4 – A man and building reconnecting is irrelevant. If this was former IU president Myles Brand sitting down with Knight for a conversation where both admitted their flaws, that would be one thing. But a man forgiving a building – or even stranger the perception of a building forgiving a man – is ridiculous.
3 – Boy who cried wolf effect. There have been unceasing rumors of Knight’s return since Fred Glass became athletic director, and none have come to fruition. Four weeks ago, Knight was believed to be headed to Assembly Hall to see Ohio State play IU. Instead, he went to a Marian University game. This was seen by some to be an act of defiance – one more thumbing of his nose at IU and his sycophantic fans.
2 – Irrelevance. Knight was fired before they many students were born. There isn’t a traditional undergrad at IU who has any cognitive memory of Knight on the sidelines for Indiana. To them, Knight is what Branch McCracken was to students in the 1970s and 1980s. These students remember Tom Crean with nostalgia, not Bob Knight.
1 – Knight may be older, but he still represents arrogance and intolerance. For those who focus on the stories of angry tirades, bizarre expressions of outrage too many to list, and the reasons for the zero tolerance policy that led to his dismissal, Knight is still a pox on Indiana University’s image. Honoring him is an outrageous outreach to an unapologetic bully. Knight is best forgotten rather than feted.
