It’s Time for Knight to Leave

Indiana University’s trustees should fire Bobby Knight on Sunday. He’s not fit to coach college kids. Then, on Monday, the Washington Wizards can add Knight to the list of coaching candidates that Michael Jordan plans to interview.

Don’t hire Knight. Lord, what a horrible thought. I wouldn’t hire Knight to mow my lawn. He could clip the grass to the perfect height, but how could I be sure he wouldn’t kick my dog? No, the Wizards could just pretend to talk to Knight. Ike Austin wouldn’t wait for the next plane out of town. He’d go Greyhound. Who says the Wizards might have to buy out Rod Strickland’s contract? When he hears the General might be coming, Rod’ll say, “Keep the money. I’ll just retire peacefully.”

The ultimate undisciplined team and the ultimate disciplinarian coach -- gives you kind of a warm glow, doesn’t it? Ex-coaches from Jimmy Lynam to Gar Heard would pay admission just to watch practice. “Head-butt him again, Bobby. Throw a chair at ‘em. Stuff somebody in a trash can.”

The Wizards could use a coach who has watched “Patton” a few dozen times too many. That part where the soldier gets slapped? Downright inspirational. Why’d that ever caused such a flap? Now, secretaries, that’s different. You don’t slap them. Just throw potted plants at ‘em. Shower ‘em with a little flying glass. Gets their attention every time.

What the NBA needs is to restore a proper balance of fear. Finally, a coach who just might choke a player. To flesh out his staff, Knight could offer P.J. Carlesimo an assistant’s job. Just let Carlesimo sit, watch the mayhem and, perhaps, come to closure.

Once, the realistic possibility that Knight might be fired as Indiana basketball coach would have been serious news. Now, it’s also comic relief. A classic bully, the epitome of the ego-run-amok coach you’d never want your own child to play for, finally may be getting his due.

To most people in the 49 states outside Indiana, Knight long ago became one of those extreme personalities who, somewhere along the way, went around the bend and became irrelevant, sad, just an object lesson. Maybe it was when Knight went on a hunting trip with his son a few years ago and, according to the Indianapolis Star, broke Tim Knight’s nose and dislocated his shoulder in an altercation.

If Knight isn’t fired by IU President Myles Brand this time, he probably will be in a year or two. The reports of violent, crude incidents, explosions, tirades and tantrums involving players, assistant coaches, secretaries and even Indiana’s athletic director just keep piling up.

Did Knight choke former Indiana player Neil Reed, as films seem to show, or just grab him by the throat--perhaps to help teach him how to run the motion offense? Did Knight verbally and physically attack assistant Ron Felling late last year before firing him, as the Chicago Sun-Times reported may have happened?

And what about 66-year-old IU secretary Jeanette Hartgraves? She’s been telling her tales. Now that the endgame may be at hand, people are finding their backbone in “Hoosiers” country. In two separate incidents, years apart, she now says Bobby went just a tiny bit over the line in his displeasure.

Once, she says he flung that potted plant against a wall, shattering both the pot and a glass picture frame--hitting her with glass and debris. Then, just two years ago, Knight cursed at her and charged at her, causing her to fear for her safety until IU Athletic Director Clarence Doninger stepped in.

Indiana athletic director--yes, now there’s a job. This season, after a loss--and there have been many losses for Knight in recent years as fewer and fewer young men wish to play for him--Doninger reportedly tried to console Knight. Big mistake. When the lion is roaring, don’t stroke its mane. The team doctor reportedly had to “restrain” Knight from disciplining his boss on the spot.

It’s commonly said that Knight will end up like Woody Hayes, who brought disgrace down on himself at the end of a great coaching career by hitting a player from a rival team on the sideline during the heat of a game. Please, don’t compare Knight and Hayes. It’s a disservice to Woody.

Hayes was a nice man who lost it sometimes. Knight is a volcano with legs who, in countless circumstances, tries to manipulate others with his own anger. Everybody has to appease him, worry about his moods, court him, so that his famous “charming” side will dain to make an appearance.

Please. Knight’s idea of charm is sarcasm, the put-down. He talks about “team” when, in fact, the entire premise of Indiana basketball has been to give Knight--not his players--a stage on which to strut.

Now, one more time, the Knight apologists will say that Knight recruited without breaking the rules, won lots of games and that his players graduated. True. But you’re not supposed to cheat or field teams with players who don’t go to class. That some coaches break the rules and exploit their players hardly makes Knight noble. It just means he’s not a scoundrel in this area, too.

For this--a few hundred basketball wins--you get to scream obscenities at players in public, grab young men in your charge by the throat, mock the authority of your own university, berate anyone who questions your behavior and intimidate underlings? For this you get to exemplify to a whole nation the egotist who blusters and bullies his way to fame and success? Then thumbs his nose.

No way.

Indiana may need its remaining sliver of basketball reputation so desperately that it will keep Knight--again. But this time, maybe, just maybe, it won’t. The line of people with stories to tell about Bobby Knight now goes out the door and down the hall. This time, Indiana may decide that some of them--enough of them--are true.