ShareThisBy JIM SOUHAN
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Bobby Knight is a bully and a coward. The Texas Tech basketball coach reaffirmed his credentials for membership in those substrata of humanity on Monday night.
Knight popped one of his players in the chin with his fist, leaving Michael Prince wincing and flexing his jaw.
This act should offend anyone who has children, or cares about the messages we send and receive via sport, or has coached youngsters, or is familiar with Knight's history of violence.
As offensive as his actions Monday night were, though, more disgusting was the reaction of his sycophants on Tuesday.
According to his supporters _ or those simply afraid of him _ you would have thought that his hand merely slipped while writing a large check to an orphanage.
ESPN basketball "analyst" Fran Fraschilla observed the blow and said, "This is coaching." He also said "a hundred" coaches will do the same thing this season and no one will care.
Gerald Myers, the former Tech coach who is now the school's athletic director, said "Coach Knight did not slap Michael," and that Knight was telling Prince "Hold your head up and don't worry about your mistakes."
On ESPN radio, Mike Golic and a litany of ESPN "analysts" brushed off the incident.
Some of these people are liars. Some are enablers.
Knight? He took one question at his post-game news conference, then walked off before the issue could be raised. Perhaps coward is too kind a word for him.
Let's try this one: criminal. That's the only term that seems to fit as you take a nostalgic trip through Knight's history of violence _ and we're leaving out his abuses of chairs, megaphones, phones, reporters, scorer's tables and the English language:
_ 1976: Grabs Indiana sophomore Jim Wisman by the jersey and yanks him into his seat.
_ 1979: Is charged and later convicted in absentia for hitting a policeman before practice at the Pan American Games in Puerto Rico.
_ 1981: Gets into a shoving match with an LSU fan that later accuses Knight of stuffing him into a garbage can.
_ 1988: In an NBC interview with Connie Chung, says, "I think that if rape is inevitable, relax and enjoy it."
_ 1993: Is suspended for one game after kicking at his son, Pat, during a sideline tirade.
_ 1994: Head-butts player Sherron Wilkerson while screaming at him on the bench.
_ 1999: Is investigated for possible battery after allegedly choking a man in a restaurant. The man admits he confronted Knight after, he says, overhearing a racist remark. The prosecutor refused to file charges.
_ 1999: Allegedly throws assistant coach Ron Felling out of a chair after hearing him criticize the basketball program.
_ 2000: Is investigated by Indiana after former player Neil Reed accuses Knight of choking him at a practice in 1997. Knight is suspended for three games, ordered to pay a $30,000 fine and barred from having physical contact with a player or a university employee after the investigation finds a pattern of unacceptable behavior.
_ 2000: Is accused of grabbing a student by the arm and cursing him after the student said, "Hey, Knight, what's up?" Indiana fires Knight for violating the school's zero-tolerance policy.
_ 2001: Now at Texas Tech, the general manager of the Compaq Center in Houston says Knight offered to fight him after Knight criticized the locker room.
_ 2004: Gets into a loud argument with the Texas Tech chancellor at a Lubbock grocery store.
_ 2006: Hits Prince.
These are the acts of a bully and coward. In Texas Tech, Knight has found an institutional enabler.
"I'm sure there were some cases where I have been wrong but (Monday night) wasn't one of them," Knight told ESPN.com. "I was trying to help a kid and I think I did. If I was confronted with the same set of circumstances I would do the exact same thing."
We know.
