Arena Manager Apologizes to Knight

The Compaq Center manager who confronted Bob Knight for disparaging the arena apologized on Monday but didn’t retract his claim that the Texas Tech coach cursed him and offered to fight him.

Jerry MacDonald, the general manager of the Houston building, apologized for his behavior and for overreacting to what Knight said about the locker rooms.

Knight ripped the arena after a 71-64 victory against Houston in a charity tournament Friday night, saying the accommodations would be cramped “for four midgets.”

MacDonald, who heard Knight make the remarks, confronted him afterward on a loading dock, saying he wanted to “hold him accountable” for his statements. That’s when he said Knight cursed him and offered to “step outside” to settle matters.

“I overstepped myself and hope that you will not hold my facility nor my company responsible,” MacDonald said in a letter to Knight. “It is not the normally accepted behavior of my company for any member of its management to behave in a less-than-professional and customer-oriented way.”

MacDonald was not available for comment.

“I get a little bit tired of the media frenzy,” Knight said. “I think the key in that whole situation is that the guy at the top of the whole thing looking into exactly what happened and then feeling without any question that he owed us an apology for what had happened.”

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Oklahoma State suspended center Jack Marlow for an indefinite period because of an undisclosed violation of team policy, the school said.