Knight appears at Greenwood (link)
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IMHO, the biggest tragedy is that he will never walk into a packed Assembly Hall, one last time, and get his long-overdue, final tribute from the fans. Perhaps with many of the past players on hand. Really wish he could forego the bitterness for 30 minutes and let that happen. Would be very cathartic for the entire Hoosier nation. It's not going to happen, and that's a shame for both RMK and the fan base.
Hints of Alzheimer's or just advancing age? As a Purdue person I will say that Mackey Arena was "different" when Bob Knight and Indiana would take the floor. I tell everyone now that it was "basketball war" when those teams and coaches competed.
I have mixed emotions about Knight now. I'm now seeing that if he would have practiced 1/10th of what he preached to his players about commitment/respect/honor, he wouldn't have come anywhere close to getting fired. If he would have practiced 1/100th of what he preached, he would have come back a decade ago. Looking back now, I'm realizing that it was time for him to go when he did. I would have liked to see him go out on better terms, but it was time.
Dementia and Alzheimer’s are similar but different.
https://www.healthline.com/health/alzheimers-disease/difference-dementia-alzheimers
https://www.healthline.com/health/alzheimers-disease/difference-dementia-alzheimers
can't disagree with any of that. Probably would have been best for him to retire in the mid 90s. Things started to slide around them. I went to high school in the early/mid 80s in the Lafayette area...an IU/RMK fan deep in enemy territory. Had to defend RMK when it was difficult to defend at times. Just hit me watching Keady rooting for the Boilers behind the bench last week, and their home court named after him, with a former player coaching. Sad that RMK's legacy at IU ended the way it did, although it was probably inevitable. Time heals all wounds but we're going on 2 decades now. It was good to hear him admit his best yrs were when he was coaching at IU. His pride would not have allowed him to say that 15 yrs ago.
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He got his final tribute in Dunn Meadow. It's all he wanted.
maybe...but I didn't get the impression he was getting what he wanted on that day. Too much rage and anger in the air.
No other college or university forced their legendary coach out the door and burned the bridge to their past success and glory.
Knight shares significant blame in that department. There can be arguments about who is more at fault, but to shift this entirely onto the University is revisionist history.
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Knight forced himself out with his actions over the years and once he stopping going deep into March the gig was up.
I don't think it is fair to have articles like this and the Indy Star basically pointing out that a person is getting older and struggles with memory. It
Journalists are not medical professionals and RMK's struggles should be private unless he is ready to tell the public. I don't want articles like this to drive him into seclusion or retreat from his daily activities. Thanks to telling me something that is none of my business, we may have seen the last of RMK in public. Anyone yhat is left holding out hope for a final curtain call in SSAH should give that up.
My son is a sports journalist and we disagree sometimes about the media, but I hope he would treat someone like RMK with more respect.
So it's the last time we may see him in public because his actions and behavior in public should have been kept private? How does that work?
Sad to hear that he's in decline. One of the most successful coaches in history and he was ours. Lots of basketball knowledge and history will soon be gone.
Saw his speech to the students each year when I was there. Razor sharp mind in a lot of ways, despite rubbing a lot of people the wrong way during his tenure.
Gotta know when to hang up your spurs and whether grudges are worth keeping (they normally aren't, life's too short). That's sad.
Going after RMK for his past mistakes is okay. It has been done enough, but it is fair game.
Calling out confusion and the suggestion that he is slipping mentally is not the way to treat anyone. I hope the 80's Knight comes out one more time and creates another headline directed towards this journalist.
The way Brand celebrated the destruction of IU basketball should go down as THE saddest moment in IU's history... the way RMK allowed himself to be more important that IU basketball should go down as the second saddest moment in IU's history... for RMK refusing to return to IU give the university and it's fans the chance to celebrate him should go down as the third saddest moment in IU's history... as for the so called experts on coaching, recruiting, medical conditions and "mental toughness" who come on the free board... you're not sad... you're pathetic.
I agree with this take. It could have been handled with less focus on his struggles that evening. A simple line about "while struggling at times with memory, Knight...…" would have been enough. The star article was like a line by line assessment of everything he struggled with.
Yeah, but there was no way that was going to happen. They'd already jumped all over Don Fischer's comments earlier. They were gonna do more of what they'd already done.
I’m not one to defend the media, but I was there last night. It was much more than merely “confusion”. If anything, the newspaper sugar coated how it went. My husband and I left, wishing we hadn’t gone. I would be very surprised if he ever does another one of these. It was just so sad to see.
Yea, let’s blame it on the journalists, not the people who want to make money any way possible.
Bob Knight is a public figure who was making a public appearance. And while it may be profoundly sad, if there were obvious problems with his performance it is newsworthy. I think the press - who was going to cover the event anyway - has an obligation to provide readers with an accurate account of the events.
The real disservice is that the event was held at all if Coach Knight is struggling to be fully functional in such appearances. But I don't know the details of the scheduling, nor do I know if it's something that Coach was determined to do despite the concerns of others. I'm glad I wasn't there to witness it. Having seen Coach Knight deliver more speeches than I can count over the years I would hate for that to be perhaps the last one I ever saw.
Miles Brand forever sucks.
Irregardless of Brand's reasons or motives. I have not seen another legendary college coach who won multiple national championships get forced out and not be there in the crowd of where he had coached like some retired coaches tend to do.
Not being there was Knight's choice. Myles brand has been gone from IU almost as long as Bob Knight.
And fwiw, "irregardless" is not a word. Not my intent to be an a-hole about it, but it's a major grammatical pet peeve of mine. I have an inability to not point it out when I see it or hear it.
Three years ago he said he wished everybody associated with the university was dead. That was an interview with Dan Patrick
Jeez. The only thing that makes me sadder than watching the video clip is reading the negative comments here. Considering his condition now it is a certainty that dementia was impacting his behavior three years ago.
The rest of these millennial comments are just as sickening. What the heck did he do that was so bad. Physical contact with a few players so effin what. My 8th grade basketball coach did more and no one even considered it unacceptable behavior. The feminization of PC USA continues unabated in SOME circles. The alumni that did nothing to help Knight at the hands of that dbag Brand should hang their heads in shame.
RMK was his own worst enemy. He thumbed his nose at the president and was fired. He then did what he could to damage the program. Screw him!
The truth can hurt. Is the media supposed to hide that RMK is in poor health? Goodness.
How many burned their IU Diplomas bearing M Brand’s name? I got a new one. Did he have issues? Yes. Did he need attitude adjusted? Yes.... does anyone agree with the way it was done? No... and given to an outsider to do.... the University didn’t just burn their link to the past, they burnt their link to everything “Indiana”. We now have Indiana Hoosiers and Indiana University Hoosiers. There IS a difference. I went to Elementary School in Bloomington and Graduated from IU. I know what he did at our school when I was a kid. Bigger than life.
As crass as it sounds, I was glad Brand got the send off he received.... I wonder who and where he is missed other than family? Not
Over and above his contributions to the athletic department he endowed two chairs and raised over $5 MM for the library. On balance RMK did far far more for IU then IU did for RMK. Then he is fired like some prof that commits a criminal act because some smart ass kid who’s father hated Knight jacked him up and received a minor rebuke from RMK in response.
There is a reason people with the onset of Alzheimer's/Dementia withdraw from public life when they are on the public stage (ala Tom Seaver), that way the media CAN'T report about their decline. RMK chose to do a public event, and from all accounts it was obvious to everyone that was there that something was off, and couple that with Don Fischer's comments a month or so ago, it made it newsworthy.
Attitudes like this are why I sometimes feel that our fans don’t deserve anymore success from the basketball program. Maybe it needs to wither away and die so we can be rid of all the pompous, ungrateful, POS so-called “fans” like this one and others throughout this thread. You’re lower than dirt, scum of the earth...
Knight was, far and away, the single person most responsible for his own demise. Not only did he thumb his nose at Brand, he did the same to essentially anyone else who dared to suggest his behavior was a big part of the problem. And these were his staunchest defenders and long time friends and advocates. I know several of them and, to a person, what Knight did to them was reprehensible.
His decline is sad and has been ongoing for a few years, but that doesn’t change his culpability in his departure from IU, no matter how willing some “fans” are to suspend reality and ignore the truth of what occurred.
Brand was a weak man who hated that there was someone at the university who was more popular than he was. He was one of the worst presidents IU ever had. He not only destroyed the basketball program with his abrupt actions he also presided over the loss of prestigious research faculty who couldn't stand him either. Now IU is near the bottom of the conference athletically and academically. I'm glad I don't know where his grave is because I'd be hard pressed not to spit on it.
What reprehensible behavior? He was fired because a smart ass kid disrespected him and he mildly rebuked the kid. His behavior might be reprehensible to a particular group of people who have a lot more education than intelligence. It’s like a mantra was adopted at that time by this group of people.
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