Bobby Knight Editorial
Not even the most knowledgeable political analysts and experts could have predicted that one of the year's most debated issues would be the firing of Indiana University men's basketball coach Bob Knight. Like all issues in a presidential election year, the firing of Knight seems to have the country divided into two parties. However, for this issue the parties are not the Democrats and Republicans. Rather, this issue has the country divided into the Knight supporters and the Knight detractors. And like any other issue, both sides seem to have plenty of evidence to support their stance on Knight.Those that support Knight and feel he was mistreated are quick to mention his vast array of coaching accomplishments and record. Knight led the Hoosiers to 11 Big Ten titles and was undefeated in 1976, the last time a college basketball team accomplished the feat. He also coached Michael Jordan and the U.S. men's basketball team to the gold medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Games. However, the Hoosiers have failed to advance past the second round of the NCAA tournament since 1994. Knight had a 763-290 record overall, including six years at Army. This means that Knight is a coach who has won more career games than all but four other coaches and
a coach whose name rests atop most lists of coaching accomplishments. Knight's coaching has not gone unnoticed. He won the Big Ten's Coach of the Year award three times in four years (1973, 1975 and 1976), and has since added three more awards (1980, 1981 and 1989). In 1975 he was a unanimous selection as National Coach of the Year, an honor he was accorded in 1976 by Associated Press, United Press International and Basketball Weekly. In 1987 he was picked as the Naismith Coach of the Year. In 1989 he garnered National Coach of the Year honors by AP, UPI and the United States Basketball Writers. The choking incident was the catalyst for Knights eventual downfall. Indiana drafted its zero tolerance policy in which Knight was to have no inappropriate physical conduct with his players. The incident also shed light on other incidents of Knight's misconduct including an incident where Knight cursed out an IU secretary and broke a flowerpot on her desk, causing her to be hit with flying glass. A pattern of Knight's misconduct began to be formed by officials at IU. That pattern included a chance meeting with a freshman, Kent Harvey, whose greeting offended the coach and prompted Knight to grab him by the arm and lecture him on manners. That was enough for IU president Myles Brand, who dismissed Knight, severing his 29-year relationship with the school. Brand was taking the school's best interests
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Approximate Word count = 945
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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