All He Wants Is a Little Respect

Those of you with September dates in the “When will Bob Knight blow up?” office pool may have taken the first step toward collecting Friday after an Indiana University freshman accused the embattled basketball coach of grabbing and cursing him outside Assembly Hall in Bloomington on Thursday.

If true, the actions would violate the “zero tolerance” code-of-conduct edict university President Myles Brand issued last May as a condition for Knight keeping his job.

At a May 15 news conference in Indianapolis, Brand said “any verified, inappropriate physical contact with players, members of the university community or others in connection with the coach’s employment at IU will be cause for immediate termination.”

Of course, nothing involving Knight is ever clear-cut.

At a Friday news conference, Knight angrily denied the charges.

“I would have to be an absolute moron--an absolute moron--with the things that have been laid on me, to grab a kid in public, or curse a kid in public, as apparently it’s been said that I did,” Knight said.

Christopher Simpson, the school’s vice president for affairs, told the Associated Press the school is taking the accusations “extraordinarily seriously.”

Yet, from the beginning of the “zero tolerance” era, many have wondered how the university would interpret the term “inappropriate.”

What would happen if Knight was provoked, which may be the case with Friday’s incident?

The student making the accusations, Kent Harvey, is the stepson of Mark Shaw, a former Bloomington-area talk-show host who has been critical of Knight.

Four of the student’s friends reportedly witnessed the incident, but there are conflicting accounts.

Knight said he grabbed the student by the arm after he reportedly greeted the coach with the line, “Hey, what’s up, Knight?”

According to Knight, he said, “Son, my name is not Knight to you. It’s Coach Knight. I don’t call people by their last name, and neither should you.

“That is what happened, that’s entirely what happened, and any deviation from that is absolutely inaccurate, completely inaccurate.”

Shaw said there were fingerprints on his stepson’s arm as a result of the confrontation, but Mike Davis, an assistant Indiana coach who was also a witness, told ESPN.com the grab was more “like shaking hands.”

University police spokesman Lt. Jerry Minger said scheduling conflicts could delay his department’s investigation.

“There’s no imminent danger to anybody,” Minger told the Associated Press. “This could take awhile.”

Brand was not available for comment, but he alone is the man responsible for Knight in the wake of a controversy that nearly cost the 59-year-old coach his job.

In March, CNN-Sports Illustrated aired a story in which Neil Reed, a former Hoosier player, accused Knight of choking him during a 1997 practice.

A videotape of the incident, leaked to the media in April, appeared to confirm Reed’s claims.

Brand ordered the university’s nine-man board of trustees to investigate the matter and, after a seven-week inquiry, the trustees concluded Knight “illustrated a protracted and often troubling pattern in which Coach Knight has a problem of controlling his anger.”

Brand, however, concluded the incidents taken individually did not constitute grounds for dismissal.

Instead, Brand suspended Knight for three games, fined him $30,000 and invoked his “zero tolerance” edict.

“It’s not a second chance,” Brand said at the time, “it’s his last chance.”

In May, Knight said he had “no problem with the guidelines.”

Brand, though, left himself some wiggle room.

“Yes,” he acknowledged. “There will be judgment calls.”

This may be the first of many.

From the beginning, friends wondered whether Knight could hold up under a barrage of reporters, referees and fans who might want to bait the coach into a career-ending incident.

“You’ve got a lot of OK Corral people out there, looking to put notches in their gun belt,”’ former Marquette coach Al McGuire told The Times in May.

Pete Newell, the hall of fame coach and one of Knight’s closest confidants, agreed.

“He’s going to get a lot of heat he normally wouldn’t get almost anywhere he goes,” Newell said. “It’s almost like walking on eggs.”

In 29 years at Indiana, Knight has survived a litany of transgressions in part because he has won three national championships in a state that views basketball as religion. With 661 career victories, Knight is 117 short of breaking Dean Smith’s record.

In 1979, Knight was arrested and convicted in absentia for an assault on a police officer in Puerto Rico.

In 1985, Knight flung a chair across the court during a game against Purdue.

In 1988, he told NBC’s Connie Chung: “I think if rape is inevitable, relax and enjoy it.”

In 1993, Knight pulled his son Patrick from a game and appeared to kick him in the legs.

The list goes on.

Will Friday’s accusation spell the end of Knight, or will he survive to coach again?

Can he make it as far as “Midnight Madness”?

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No Shining Knight

Controversies involving Indiana basketball Coach Bob Knight:

* 1975-76: Upset over two turnovers, Knight grabbed sophomore Jim Wisman by the jersey and jerked him into his seat. Later Wisman said Knight was right in his actions, but Knight said he was wrong.

* 1979: Was charged and later tried and convicted in absentia for hitting a Puerto Rican policeman before practice at the Pan American Games. Knight was sentenced to six months in jail but the government of Puerto Rico decided in 1987 to drop efforts to extradite him.

* 1980-81: Used his weekly program to show films of a “sucker punch” involving Isiah Thomas and Purdue’s Roosevelt Barnes, which he said proved Thomas’ innocence. He brings a donkey wearing a Purdue cap onto his TV show. In Philadelphia for the Final Four, Knight got into a shoving match with a Louisiana State fan, who said the coach stuffed him into a garbage can.

* 1984-85: Tossed a chair across the court during a game against Purdue. Knight was ejected and suspended for one game by Big Ten Commissioner Wayne Duke. Knight apologized.

* 1986-87: Banged his fist on the scorer’s table after being assessed a technical foul during an NCAA regional tournament game against Louisiana State. The university was fined $10,000 by the NCAA and Knight received a reprimand.

* 1988: In an NBC interview with Connie Chung, who asked how he handles stress, Knight said: “I think that if rape is inevitable, relax and enjoy it.” He explained he was talking about something beyond one’s control, not the act of rape. The remark triggered protests and a march of about 300 people on the Indiana campus.

* 1991-92: Barred a female reporter from the locker room, saying it was inappropriate for her to be there and also against university policy. All reporters were subsequently barred from the locker room.

* 1991-92: Playfully gave a mock whipping to Calbert Cheaney, a black player, during practice for the NCAA West Regional. Several black leaders were offended. Knight denied any racial connotations and noted the bullwhip was given to him by the players.

* 1993-94: Was suspended for one game after a sideline tirade in a 101-82 victory over Notre Dame. During the outburst, Knight screamed at his son Patrick, and kicked him in the leg. Then, when fans behind the Indiana bench started booing, Knight turned and responded with an obscenity.

* 1993-94: Accidentally head-butted freshman Sherron Wilkerson during a timeout at Michigan State. After the next game, the Hoosiers’ home finale against Wisconsin, Knight took the public-address microphone and recited a profane verse directed at his critics.

* 1994-95: Was reprimanded and fined $30,000 by the NCAA for an outburst directed toward NCAA media liaison at a news conference after the Hoosiers’ 65-60 first-round NCAA tournament loss to Missouri.

* 1997-98: Was fined $10,000 by the Big Ten for berating referee Ted Valentine, whose officiating Knight called ‘the greatest travesty’ he had seen in his coaching career. Knight received three technical fouls and was ejected by Valentine during the second half of a loss to Illinois.

* 1999: Investigated for possible battery after allegedly choking a man at an Ellettsville, Ind., restaurant. The man reportedly confronted Knight as he was leaving, claiming he heard Knight make a racist remark.

* 2000: University investigated Knight after former player Neil Reed claimed the coach choked him during practice in 1997. A tape appeared to support Reed’s claim. Other reports followed: Knight attacked a former Indiana sports information director and threw a vase near an athletic department secretary.

* 2000: Knight is alleged to have grabbed the arm of Kent Harvey and to have used profanity while giving the Indiana freshman a lecture on manners.