Will Bob Knight show up? Hey, it could happen
Over the weekend, we college basketball fans learned of a relatively momentous thing: Indiana athletic director Fred Glass sent Bob Knight a handwritten invitation to the school's Hall of Fame induction ceremony, where Knight is going to be honored for his sporting contributions to Indiana University. Such an honor is a long time coming, and is the product of a whole new batch of people -- different president, different AD, and perhaps most importantly, different basketball coach -- in powerful positions at the school.
But just because you invite someone to something doesn't mean they'll show up. (I mean, I invite this guy Ryan to my birthday party every year, but I never actually want him to be there.) Knight is an irascible sort. He basically refuses to even mention Indiana when he's around a microphone no matter how many times Dick Vitale screams about naming Assembly Hall after him (after Knight) on ESPN College Gameday. Knight just sort of stares and doesn't say anything, and Rece Davis awkwardly moves the show along.
But if there's a chance Knight will ever come back to Bloomington, this is it. There are a couple of reasons for this.
• Fred Glass isn't messing around: Knight has plenty of friends left in Bloomington, and one of them is former Bloomington Herald-Times sports editor Bob Hammel, who has agreed to help Glass in his mission. It's hard to describe just how close Hammel and Knight were during Knight's heyday; John Feinstein's famous Season On The Brink captures Hammel and Knight as best friends whose respective duties never seemed to interfere with their closeness. (An argument about the journalistic ethics of being best friends with the prime subject of your coverage is for another day, I suppose, but let's just say it's more than a little questionable.) But anyway, if anyone can help convince Knight that now's the time to come back -- that they're getting too old for all this anger -- it's Hammel. Glass was wise to recruit Hammel to the cause.
• In recent years, Knight has shown a rapidly increasing ability to embrace forces he once so frequently collided with. The easiest example is ESPN. Knight once mercilessly insulted journalists at his press conferences, and even when he didn't have a TV-ready quip he was just flat mean. He apparently had zero respect for sports journalism. He hated it. And now, he is one of them.
This Indiana thing could arguably require even less of a reversal on Knight's part. Far as I can remember -- and who knows what Knight's said in private -- he's never said never to a return to Indiana. He just hasn't addressed the subject. And with a whole new batch of people in place, and a clear invitation not only from Indiana's fans but from the current administration itself, it wouldn't be that much of a leap.
Maybe Knight's still really angry, but if so, he's angry at the wrong things. The abstract, nebulous institution that is Indiana University didn't fire him. People did. Probably rightfully so. But if there was ever a time to forget those details and revel in honoring a fantastic (and fantastically flawed) college basketball coach, now is the time.
But just because you invite someone to something doesn't mean they'll show up. (I mean, I invite this guy Ryan to my birthday party every year, but I never actually want him to be there.) Knight is an irascible sort. He basically refuses to even mention Indiana when he's around a microphone no matter how many times Dick Vitale screams about naming Assembly Hall after him (after Knight) on ESPN College Gameday. Knight just sort of stares and doesn't say anything, and Rece Davis awkwardly moves the show along.
But if there's a chance Knight will ever come back to Bloomington, this is it. There are a couple of reasons for this.
• Fred Glass isn't messing around: Knight has plenty of friends left in Bloomington, and one of them is former Bloomington Herald-Times sports editor Bob Hammel, who has agreed to help Glass in his mission. It's hard to describe just how close Hammel and Knight were during Knight's heyday; John Feinstein's famous Season On The Brink captures Hammel and Knight as best friends whose respective duties never seemed to interfere with their closeness. (An argument about the journalistic ethics of being best friends with the prime subject of your coverage is for another day, I suppose, but let's just say it's more than a little questionable.) But anyway, if anyone can help convince Knight that now's the time to come back -- that they're getting too old for all this anger -- it's Hammel. Glass was wise to recruit Hammel to the cause.
• In recent years, Knight has shown a rapidly increasing ability to embrace forces he once so frequently collided with. The easiest example is ESPN. Knight once mercilessly insulted journalists at his press conferences, and even when he didn't have a TV-ready quip he was just flat mean. He apparently had zero respect for sports journalism. He hated it. And now, he is one of them.
This Indiana thing could arguably require even less of a reversal on Knight's part. Far as I can remember -- and who knows what Knight's said in private -- he's never said never to a return to Indiana. He just hasn't addressed the subject. And with a whole new batch of people in place, and a clear invitation not only from Indiana's fans but from the current administration itself, it wouldn't be that much of a leap.
Maybe Knight's still really angry, but if so, he's angry at the wrong things. The abstract, nebulous institution that is Indiana University didn't fire him. People did. Probably rightfully so. But if there was ever a time to forget those details and revel in honoring a fantastic (and fantastically flawed) college basketball coach, now is the time.
