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What: ESPN’s “Up Close Prime

Time” profile on Bob Knight.

The making of this hour-long examination of the controversial Indiana University basketball coach is at least as interesting as the finished product, which initially aired locally on Friday afternoon.

It took host Roy Firestone 11 months to schedule his first interview with Bob Knight, mainly because, Firestone admits, he approached the assignment as a self-avowed Knight-hater. “I was really anti-Knight for 10 years, “ Firestone says. “I’d never let any opportunity to rip him pass.”

Knight knew this as well. So when Firestone first called to request an interview, he recalls that Knight “cursed me for 10 minutes. He said, ‘Why would I want to talk to you? All you ever do is blister me. Wouldn’t it be nice to meet someone first before you take him apart?’ ”

When Firestone replied that his voicing his opinion of Knight was part of his role as a sports commentator, Knight shot back, “Who made you judge and jury?”

Only after former Notre Dame coach Digger Phelps acted as an intermediary did Knight consent to meet Firestone. “Wanna go hunting?” Knight proposed. Firestone accepted, even though, as he puts it, “I’ve never had a gun in my hand for even 40 seconds. . . . He and I couldn’t be any more different.”

Firestone says he gained a grudging respect for Knight, which colors this “Up Close” profile from start to finish. Firestone bends over backward in his attempt to reveal Knight’s “other side”--the “Good Knight,” as one segment is labeled. As portrayed here, Knight is the crude, crusty coach with the heart of gold, whose loutish behavior on the court can be offset--even excused--by unpublicized acts of good and Knight’s unwavering moral compass.

“He’s like that Nicholson character in ‘A Few Good Men,’ ” Firestone assesses. “Honor and code--that’s all that matters to him.”

Firestone imagines that “the anti-Knight people” might come away from this profile “thinking, ‘Firestone bought the farm on this one.’ . . . But I wanted him to explain who he is. I think we did a good job.”

In the process, the anti-Knight people seem to have lost a long-standing member.