Good Knight or Goodbye

The agitated trustee tossed out a statement that clattered like a metal chair across a hardwood floor.

“There are no sacred cows at Indiana University,” John Walda said.

No, just silk-suited chickens.

For 29 years, Bob Knight has seemingly brought such great importance to a school with apparently so little self-respect, his immoral and even illegal behavior was a price gladly paid.

Shame on us for thinking judgment day was going to be any different.

The school addressed the Knight issue Monday in a news conference that was far more egregious than any of his stunts.

The university president cowered, its trustees blushed, and integrity flat-out fainted.

A three-game suspension for the sort of choking incident that cost Latrell Sprewell nearly a full season? Of course, Sprewell plays in that moral bastion known as the NBA.

A set of no-tolerance conduct rules that will result in immediate dismissal if they are broken? Um, haven’t those rules been in place for 29 years, or has it always been legal at Indiana to throw a vase at a secretary?

A $30,000 fine? That’s shoe money.

Presented with a nicely garnished chance to fire a coach who has outlived his methods and overplayed his madness, Indiana officials did what they always do in these situations.

They listened to the coach. They kissed his red sweater. They ran his strange plays.

In doing so, they behaved far worse than Knight has ever dreamed of behaving.

They head-butted morality.

They punched ethics.

They choked dignity.

They did require an individual apology. But that was to the secretary Knight almost beheaded when he smashed a vase against a wall behind her.

What about Neil Reed, the player whose allegations of choking began the investigation, the player university officials tried to smear until videotape proved he was telling the truth?

They are trying to smear him still.

“[Knight] will offer a general apology to all others involved,” said university President Myles Brand, sitting amazingly straight for someone with no apparent spine.

And besides, said smirking trustee Walda, “It depends on how you define the word, ‘choking.’ ”

Not only did they not require Knight to face his main accuser, they didn’t even require him to face his community.

He might have been sorry, as Walda claimed in a brief message from Knight, but not sorry enough to come to the news conference and tell everyone himself.

“Coach Knight will eventually speak for himself, I’m sure,” Brand said.

By the tone of his voice, you could tell that he was not sure at all.

In its finite wisdom, Indiana University has issued a directive to a man who takes orders from no one.

It has drawn up rules for a man who makes his own.

It has penalized a man for whom there is no shame.

It has done nothing to change an environment where bullying continues to be an acceptable form of leadership, as long as that bully wins three national championships and has a chance of becoming college basketball’s all-time winningest coach.

Gee, sounds like a great place to send your children.

The message this sends about Indiana and basketball is not just foolish, but frightening.

It’s fun to wax poetic about a sport so ingrained in a community, it is like a religion. It’s scary when that religion becomes a cult.

The most unsettling thing about Knight’s famed chair fling in 1985 was not the actual throw, but the response.

Watch the video. As the chair bounces across the court and nearly hits two cheerleaders, Indiana fans erupt in cheers.

The most uncomfortable thing about all those shoves and head-butts and verbal tirades were never the actual acts, but how everyone else reacted to them.

For nearly 29 years, few people did or said anything.

You can’t expect a freshman to fight his coach, but what about the alumni in the stands, or the university officials watching on television? What about a community leader standing up and saying enough is enough?

Are basketball tickets in Bloomington worth that much?

What’s most amazing about all the recent allegations toward Knight are not the actual allegations, but that they have been covered up for so long.

Knight is supposedly a tremendous teacher, but are the people of Indiana that desperate for teachers?

Knight is supposedly forever loyal to his players after graduation, but is that a trait so rare that people will let someone punch their neighbors in exchange?

And maybe the most startling thing about Monday’s news conference was not the answer, but one of the questions.

A journalist actually asked if this action would have been taken if Knight had not failed to win a national title in the last 13 years.

Good question.

“Our basketball team hasn’t been that bad,” responded Brand quickly, vehemently, showing far more emotion in defending his coach than in reprimanding him.

A message about Indiana, and a warning for the rest of us.

The sports world is bereft of leaders who stay in one place for long periods of time while demanding consistent overall excellence. We will go to great lengths to place our children in such environments.

But there is always a price. And we have to understand that price before paying it.

Indiana set its price Monday, and it is unconscionably high.

“If Bob Knight persists in this type of conduct, it will not be tolerated,” Brand said Monday.

They’re giving him 29 more years, tops.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at his e-mail address: bill.plaschke@latimes.com.