"When my time on Earth is gone
And my activities here are past
I want that they should bury me upside down
So my critics can kiss my ass."
-addressing crowd during senior day ceremonies 1994
"I don't think you could lead a whore to bed."
-commenting on Steve Alford's leadership skills in A Season on the Brink
"Daryl, get in the game or get out! Do you know you haven't scored a basket
inside since Jesus Christ was lecturing in Omaha."
-addressing Daryl Thomas in Brink
"Stew, you look like a god-damn dog chasing a rabbit through a briar patch."
-assessing the play of Stew Robinson in Brink
"The reason we lost the game was you, it was your fault."
-berating 1981 championship team member Steve Risley in Brink. Risley didn't
appear in that particular game.
"I have never been one to hesitate to get on people, and maybe sometimes I
get on kids a little too much."
-on his radio show, January 1985
"There isn't anything, except for my family, that I think about more than I
do basketball."
-Bloomington Herald Times, November 1981
"I do dumb things sometimes."
-Saturday Evening Post, March 1981
"If you're not careful, you can get a grossly overinflated opinion about
your popularity."
-Indianapolis Monthly, December 1982
"I fortunately have never worried about irritating people."
-Indianapolis Monthly, December 1982
"People want national championship banners. People want to talk about
Indiana being competitive. How do we get there? We don't get there with milk
and cookies."
-Herald Times March 1994
"I tell them [IU players] that wherever you start in life there will be
others above you. Get used to it now."
-talking about his 'I'm the boss' coaching style, Time 1976
"A player enters the Hall of Fame on his ability. A coach enters on the
ability of his players."
-referring to his induction to the Hall of Fame, February 1991
"You are never going to be driven anywhere worthwhile, but you sure as hell
drive yourself to a lot of great places. It is up to you to drive yourself
there."
-Herald Times November 1992
"Your biggest opponent isn't the other guy. It's human nature."
-SI, January 1981
"Failure, to me, is not having the desire to try. Having the desire to try
is in its own way success."
-Herald Times November 1993
"Discipline: doing what you have to do, and doing it as well as you possibly
can, and doing it that way all the time."
-SI January 1981
"Recruit Jackasses, and they play like Jackasses."
-SI January 1981
"I want a persistent player, not the consistent player. I want a team that
is persistent, unyielding, enduring, staying with something despite
obstacles."
-Herald Times December 1985
"God couldn't care less if we win or not. He is not going to parachute in
through the roof of this building and score when we need points."
-talking to Steve Alford, Playing for Knight
"I like to think of C.M. Newton [University of Kentucky Athletic Director]
as the school's director of corrections."
-referring to UK's reputation for putting less-than-outstanding public
citizens on the team, Herald
Times October 1990
"I'm amazed at his rise from illiterate roots. Look at what we've done with
him. We've put him in a suit and tie and shined his shoes."
-commenting during a ceremony for Thomson Electronics executive who holds a
graduate degree from
IU, Herald Times Oct 1990
"In taking of his time to help unfortunate people, he eventually becomes
penalized. I thought it was a tremendous irony, with all that garbage that
has gone on at Kentucky over the years."
-opinion on the NCAA's one game suspension of Steve Alford who posed for a
charity calendar, and
subsequently missed the game where IU lost to Kentucky 63-58
"@#%$ 'em, @#%$ 'em all. I'll tell you what, their basketball is a hell of a
lot easier to beat than their court system. The only @#%$ thing they know
how to do is grow bananas."
-commenting on his ill-fated visit to Puerto Rico, SI January 1979
"I stood up, unzipped my pants, lowered my shorts and placed my bare ass on
the window. That's the last thing I wanted those people to see of me."
-Knight's description of his parting shot at Puerto Rico while flying home
"I've watched the Russians play for two years and we'd beat their ass
anywhere they want to play."
-after his 1984 US Olympic basketball team won gold in an Olympics boycotted
by the USSR
"You know, we taught you how to play basketball and baseball, and now you're
teaching us how to make steel and build cars."
-during 1985 pre-game conference in Japan
"I've visited Isautier's homeland of France on five occasions, and I'm
pleased to finally meet a Frenchman I could understand."
-on meeting Bernard Isautier Thompson Electronics chairman who happens to be
French
"I don't always have to wait until the next morning to regret something I
did that was kinda dumb."
-Eve of the 1985 NIT championship game
"I should have gone to his home and talked to him. I'm sure I could have
brought him back to IU."
-referring to the fact that he made no attempt to talk to Larry Bird, who
played briefly for IU, into staying on the team, HT 1985
"I can't tell you, and I don't even like discussing it, the number of times
I've gone home and said, 'God, I wish I hadn't gotten on that kid like
that.' I wish I didn't think I had to get on him. Hey, I'm not - I never
once said I'm perfect. I have made mistakes, but that really doesn't
separate me from anyone else. Am I susceptible or liable to criticism?
Certainly, and sometimes fairly."
-HT March 1994
"I'd be less than honest if I didn't say to myself, 'What am I doing this
for?'"
-HT March 1985
"[Jay] Edwards on the floor has been as good as any kid I've had, and I've
had some really good kids. Off the floor, Edwards has been a monumental pain
in my ass."
-referring to Big Ten Freshman of the Year who lost his scholarship for
academic and discipline reasons,
1988.
"They talk about Duke as a great academic institution. My gosh, they can't
hold a candle to a dropout from Indiana."
-referring to Mike Kryzewski, IU grad, and Knight coaching prodigy who
failed to complete his graduate degree in business while at IU.
"Chris Reynolds has a heart that is so big that you have to fold it over
about three times to get it into his chest."
-HT November 1992
"Congratulations on the birth of your first child. I'm glad to hear that
mother and son are doing well. P.S. Don't ever let your husband hold this
kid over anything but a bed."
-congratulating Uwe Blab's wife
"If I were in charge, I'd drug test all you son's of bitches, not just the
athletes."
-addressing IU students Q&As, A Season on the Brink
"A B.S. is just what it stands for. A M.S. is More of the Same. A PhD. Is
Piled Higher and Deeper."
-A Season on the Brink
"My humble suggestion would be that the $30,000 fine be used to provide
scholarships for underprivileged students rather than being used for
expenses for the NCAA tournament's annual golf meeting, which this summer is
in Cape Cod."
-commenting on his fine for postage berating of NCAA tournament official
"If universities want to save a little money, they ought to make some
cutbacks in administration and in faculty people who teach one class a
week."
-referring to NCAA suggestion that budgets be trimmed by reducing basketball
coaching staffs, HT January 1991
"Take a look at me. I'm 53 years old, out of shape, bad back. Who the hell
am I going to scare?"
-prior to 1994 NCAA tourney game when asked whether his players feared him
"I tell you what really fries my ass. When somebody gets on me for the way I
look. Fat. Overweight. Well, I may be overweight. But I'm sure not fat. And
I guarantee you, I'm a better athlete than any @#%$ body writing. To this
day, they don't want to play tennis with me. The don't want to play me in
golf. They don't want to @#%$ run with me..."
-Esquire March 1988
"You remember when you were a kid growing up, and believed in Santa Claus?
There's not much difference between Santa Claus and me today, you know.
We're two overweight lovable guys that kids really enjoy."
-Bob Knight, His Own Man
"What the hell difference does it make? So I'm 50."
-musing about his big five-oh, Indianapolis Monthly October 1990
"If there are any problems with Keith Smart, you are going to see his ass on
the bench. That's the way we handle ego at Indiana. You see the bench gives
your ass a message, then your ass gives your brain a message, and then your
brain will probably get Keith Smart to play a helluva lot better."
-Esquire March 1988
"They were using too much batter before. But, I got on their ass."
-responding to dining partner's comment regarding fried chicken at
Bloomington's Third Base Lounge
"I loved him. He could really handle me. I don't think I ever bothered that
SOB. But you ask him how I got on his ass."
-commenting on coaching 1984 Olympian Chris Mullin, Esquire March 1988
"A motivator isn't always the guy who just pats you on the ass. He's the guy
who kicks you in the ass occasionally."
-Indianapolis Monthly December 1982
"A turd."
-describing A Season on the Brink author John Feinstein
"If you're a coach you're going to get your ass beat now and then."
-Bob Knight, His Own Man
"There's some of those good guys like Carson and Marshall you're always
telling me about, and you get on their ass."
-telephone pep talk to New York Giants Coach Bill Parcels, Esquire March
1988
"Wayman [Tisdale] has been a special joy to me. I get on his ass and he
reacts well to it."
-Newsweek August 1984
"I guess that people are attracted, or whatever, to a no bullshit guy who
tells people to shove it up their ass when he thinks it's appropriate."
-ruminating on the popularity of A Season on the Brink, Esquire March 1988
"I'm not sure that an athlete is prepared to be a role model. He has a lot
of attention paid to him that he shouldn't have, and then the athletes tend
to think of themselves as better than they are."
-Herald Times November 1988
"If my primary purpose here at Indiana is to go out and win ballgames, I can
probably do that as well as anybody can. I would just cheat, get some money
from a lot of people around Indianapolis who want to run the operation that
way, and just go out and get the best basketball players I can. Then we'd
beat everybody all the time."
-HT January 1985
"I don't feel sorry for Len Bias...[He] was better than anyone in this
room...but he's dead. He's not sick, he's not hurt, he's dead...He wanted to
be one of the boys. He wanted to be cool. Well he was so cool, he's cold.
He's cold as heck."
-commenting on cocaine overdose of Len Bias, University of Maryland player,
Jet August 1987
"A coach flies off the handle in public and everyone sees him. I'd like to
be around to see what one of you guys does when somebody changes your copy."
-to a group of journalists, 1994
"All of us learn to write in second grade, and most of us go on to better
things."
-SI January 1981
"For me to get an award from the press, I know there's been no favoritism."
-after being named AP Coach of the Year 1989
"Bad officiating has almost ruined the basketball in this league."
-HT January 1986
"Through testing of Big Ten officials it is found that 79% of them are not
capable of counting to 5 correctly."
-referring to a rule change taking away a five second violation from a
closely guarded dribbler, November 1993
"While I have been very concerned about the way some things have been
handled in the Big Ten, in particular the officiating, which really
frustrated me in the past couple of years, I do not think my action in the
Purdue game was in any way necessary or appropriate."
-statement after infamous chair throwing episode against Purdue in Assembly
Hall 1985
"If my reaction to the jeering from the stands on Tuesday night offended any
true Hoosier fans, I am deeply sorry and wish to apologize. I realize that
you have not always agreed with what I have done or said. I probably
wouldn't agree with all you have said or did either. P. S. We have been
working on Patrick's passing."
-statement after he kicked his son, Patrick, at 1993 home game. Knight then
hurled invectives at the crowd when they booed him.
"I told my wife [first wife Nancy] when we got married that there were two
things she'd never do with me: play golf and go fishing."
-Indianapolis Monthly December 1982
"I think that as I grow older and older, maybe my dad was my biggest role
model. My dad was a very interesting guy. He died when I was 29. As time
passed, I think back more and more about what he was like, what he stood
for, and all the things that he said."
-HT November 1991
"We are going to redshirt Patrick [Knight] next year so he'll have me as a
coach for 5 years. When Patrick is done, having me as a father and a coach,
Patrick Knight will undoubtedly have the most blistered ass in the history
of basketball."
-HT May 1991
"I was doing undercover work at the Indiana Division of Natural Resources.
They have been told that several quail have infiltrated southern Indiana,
and they asked me to spend Sunday on a search and destroy mission. So I
did."
-Knight's reason for blowing off the 1984 Big Ten pre-season press
conference, HT
"Would it help you if I went back out, and came back in walking on my hands
or something?"
-responding to 1992 press conference question about why he didn't appear to
enjoy coaching
"You know, I wish all alumni would be canonized. That way we coaches would
only have to kiss your rings."
-addressing IU alumni group, A Season on the Brink
"Right here is the key to success in coaching. Probably no motivational
device I've ever come across is as good as this."
-brandishing a bullwhip, a gift from his players
"I've had all the challenges I need in my lifetime. I'd rather play against
a really bad team."
-responding to question asking if he enjoys facing tough defensive teams, HT
March 1994
"I once told a guy I would like to have carved on my tombstone, 'He was
honest, and he didn't kiss anybody's ass.'"
-Indianapolis Monthly December 1982
"I have often said this to some sanctimonious self-righteous critics that I
have: 'I would hope that when judgment day comes, they don't appear before
St. Peter's table with me, and only one space available for both of us, and
the judgment being made on who has done the most for fellow man. I have no
doubt St. Peter will turn to me and say, 'Robert, pass through the gate.'"
-NBC interview with Bob Costas, March 1994
"What a bullshit question. Anyone can play basketball, black, white, blue,
or green. You can think of a better question than that."
-on being asked whether blacks were more gifted than whites in basketball
"Hell, I don't even watch the pros. If the NBA was on Channel 5 and a bunch
of frogs making love were on Channel 4, I'd watch the frogs--even if they
came in fuzzy."
-on coaching in the pros
"Basketball may have been invented in Massachusetts, but it was made for
Indiana."
-on basketball in Indiana
"Steve, you can't stand there like a @#%$ statue. That's what they've got in
the harbor in New York: a @#%$ statue. I don't need that bullshit in here."
Knight told the assembly, "If any of you pass Steve Alford on campus, I want
you to stop him and ask him if he can spell defense."
-Knight told Steve Alford in practice one day
"That has got to be the worst defensive play by two Indiana guards I have
ever seen. I can almost excuse Keith, because he's new. But Alford, what's
your excuse? How can anybody play four years in this system and not learn
one thing about playing defense? I've wasted, totally wasted, three years
trying to teach you, and the minute you go into a defensive crouch I hear
people laughing in the stands."
-Alford's senior year
"I was worried about losing until I looked down the floor and saw Dale
Brown. Then I knew we had a chance."
-commenting on that stormy 1987 game with LSU
"You know, if any of you someday are on the street and you see that Wayne
Duke is about to get run over by a car, I would encourage you, I think, to
save him. But not if it's in any way inconvenient for you to do so."
-addressing an alumni group, on Big Ten Commissioner Wayne Duke
"That kind of from the players reflects on the entire operation of the team.
I'd rather have players concentrating on what we're going to do than on some
clever, wiseass thing to say to somebody else."
-on trash-talking by basketball players.
"Buckner contributes so much to any team that understands basketball. He
gets everybody to play better. It's a damn shame in a state like this that
loves good basketball that we have a professional organization up in
Indianapolis that clearly doesn't understand anything about the game."
-On Quinn Buckner (after Buckner was cut by the Pacers)
"They were a fine team, but an hour later we wanted to beat them again."
-an interview after thoroughly beating a 1984 Chinese Olympic team
A story about Knight's coaching class:
The first day of class, he always asks the students how many of them ever
had a coach they didn't like. The class is somewhat reluctant to raise their
hands, but eventually some do, which leads to some more. Now, they're
getting kind of brave, and in the end about half of the class has their hand
raised. Knight then looks around with a glare and responds: "Well you know
what, we don't like some of you little bastards either!" The hands shoot
down and from then on, no one raises their hand unless called upon.
First words to come out of Bob Knight's mouth at a post-game conference
after the IU/Purdue game:
"Don't crowd me!"
-2/10/98
Reporter: Did Luke Recker only play 10 minutes in the second half because he
was tired?
Bob Knight: "I was tired of watching his defense."
-IU/Northwestern post-game comments, 2/14/98
Speech to the students:
"I've got a little class I teach. There are a lot of you who wouldn't like
my class. I won't let you come in barefooted. You can't wear a hat. If you
cut class, it's an automatic C. And if you cut it twice, you'd better have
time to go to Drop and Add."
97-98 season:
"Larry, you're no more prepared for this than the Bank of America is to lend
money to the penguins."
-to Larry Richardson in practice
"If that's a good shot, then I'm a paratrooper in the Women's Chinese Navy."
-Coach K's website
"Richard, who the hell is going to guard him, God? God's not going to guard
him Richard. The Methodists control God and they're not going to let us use
him."
-to Mandeville after a blown defensive assignment in practice
"Luke, is it against your religion to play this way?"
-to Recker, who was out of position defensively
Reporter: Was there any possibility you wouldn't be coaching this game
[Oklahoma]?
Knight: "Unless I was broke, which I'm not."
-referring to $10,000 fine for comments made about Ted Valentine during the
IU/Illinois senior day game.
Reporter: If you wouldn't have had to miss an NCAA tournament game, would
you have taken the penalty? If I don't follow up on that question, I will
get fired.
Knight: "God damn, there are a lot of you guys I'd like to see get fired.
What the hell makes you think I'm going to save you? From the Christian
depths of my heart, I'll do what's necessary. So ask your question."
Reporter: Could you amplify on why?
Knight: "...Now put up a picture of me in the morning so every time you look
in the mirror you can look at that and say, damn, he saved my job."
-1998 NCAA pre-game press conference
"My wife thinks I'm outdated sometimes. What the hell am I going to say to
her? I just nod my head and keep right on."
-response to a question about what he would say to those who think he's
outdated
"The last three years we've lost the first game of the tournament, OK? The
four years prior to that we were the only team in America that went to the
regional four times. I haven't ever seen that written, which again doesn't
amaze me."
-responding to question about whether first-round win over Oklahoma in
overtime of NCAA tourney was special
"Patterson is such a good kid. I've never had a better kid. He has a
professional singing voice, but he has an artist's personality, not a
competitor's personality. It's tough for him to really compete the way he
has to to get the most out of the considerable ability he has. He's battled
that personality as long as he's been at Indiana."
-referring to Andrae Patterson's inconsistent play
http://pub51.ezboard.com
And my activities here are past
I want that they should bury me upside down
So my critics can kiss my ass."
-addressing crowd during senior day ceremonies 1994
"I don't think you could lead a whore to bed."
-commenting on Steve Alford's leadership skills in A Season on the Brink
"Daryl, get in the game or get out! Do you know you haven't scored a basket
inside since Jesus Christ was lecturing in Omaha."
-addressing Daryl Thomas in Brink
"Stew, you look like a god-damn dog chasing a rabbit through a briar patch."
-assessing the play of Stew Robinson in Brink
"The reason we lost the game was you, it was your fault."
-berating 1981 championship team member Steve Risley in Brink. Risley didn't
appear in that particular game.
"I have never been one to hesitate to get on people, and maybe sometimes I
get on kids a little too much."
-on his radio show, January 1985
"There isn't anything, except for my family, that I think about more than I
do basketball."
-Bloomington Herald Times, November 1981
"I do dumb things sometimes."
-Saturday Evening Post, March 1981
"If you're not careful, you can get a grossly overinflated opinion about
your popularity."
-Indianapolis Monthly, December 1982
"I fortunately have never worried about irritating people."
-Indianapolis Monthly, December 1982
"People want national championship banners. People want to talk about
Indiana being competitive. How do we get there? We don't get there with milk
and cookies."
-Herald Times March 1994
"I tell them [IU players] that wherever you start in life there will be
others above you. Get used to it now."
-talking about his 'I'm the boss' coaching style, Time 1976
"A player enters the Hall of Fame on his ability. A coach enters on the
ability of his players."
-referring to his induction to the Hall of Fame, February 1991
"You are never going to be driven anywhere worthwhile, but you sure as hell
drive yourself to a lot of great places. It is up to you to drive yourself
there."
-Herald Times November 1992
"Your biggest opponent isn't the other guy. It's human nature."
-SI, January 1981
"Failure, to me, is not having the desire to try. Having the desire to try
is in its own way success."
-Herald Times November 1993
"Discipline: doing what you have to do, and doing it as well as you possibly
can, and doing it that way all the time."
-SI January 1981
"Recruit Jackasses, and they play like Jackasses."
-SI January 1981
"I want a persistent player, not the consistent player. I want a team that
is persistent, unyielding, enduring, staying with something despite
obstacles."
-Herald Times December 1985
"God couldn't care less if we win or not. He is not going to parachute in
through the roof of this building and score when we need points."
-talking to Steve Alford, Playing for Knight
"I like to think of C.M. Newton [University of Kentucky Athletic Director]
as the school's director of corrections."
-referring to UK's reputation for putting less-than-outstanding public
citizens on the team, Herald
Times October 1990
"I'm amazed at his rise from illiterate roots. Look at what we've done with
him. We've put him in a suit and tie and shined his shoes."
-commenting during a ceremony for Thomson Electronics executive who holds a
graduate degree from
IU, Herald Times Oct 1990
"In taking of his time to help unfortunate people, he eventually becomes
penalized. I thought it was a tremendous irony, with all that garbage that
has gone on at Kentucky over the years."
-opinion on the NCAA's one game suspension of Steve Alford who posed for a
charity calendar, and
subsequently missed the game where IU lost to Kentucky 63-58
"@#%$ 'em, @#%$ 'em all. I'll tell you what, their basketball is a hell of a
lot easier to beat than their court system. The only @#%$ thing they know
how to do is grow bananas."
-commenting on his ill-fated visit to Puerto Rico, SI January 1979
"I stood up, unzipped my pants, lowered my shorts and placed my bare ass on
the window. That's the last thing I wanted those people to see of me."
-Knight's description of his parting shot at Puerto Rico while flying home
"I've watched the Russians play for two years and we'd beat their ass
anywhere they want to play."
-after his 1984 US Olympic basketball team won gold in an Olympics boycotted
by the USSR
"You know, we taught you how to play basketball and baseball, and now you're
teaching us how to make steel and build cars."
-during 1985 pre-game conference in Japan
"I've visited Isautier's homeland of France on five occasions, and I'm
pleased to finally meet a Frenchman I could understand."
-on meeting Bernard Isautier Thompson Electronics chairman who happens to be
French
"I don't always have to wait until the next morning to regret something I
did that was kinda dumb."
-Eve of the 1985 NIT championship game
"I should have gone to his home and talked to him. I'm sure I could have
brought him back to IU."
-referring to the fact that he made no attempt to talk to Larry Bird, who
played briefly for IU, into staying on the team, HT 1985
"I can't tell you, and I don't even like discussing it, the number of times
I've gone home and said, 'God, I wish I hadn't gotten on that kid like
that.' I wish I didn't think I had to get on him. Hey, I'm not - I never
once said I'm perfect. I have made mistakes, but that really doesn't
separate me from anyone else. Am I susceptible or liable to criticism?
Certainly, and sometimes fairly."
-HT March 1994
"I'd be less than honest if I didn't say to myself, 'What am I doing this
for?'"
-HT March 1985
"[Jay] Edwards on the floor has been as good as any kid I've had, and I've
had some really good kids. Off the floor, Edwards has been a monumental pain
in my ass."
-referring to Big Ten Freshman of the Year who lost his scholarship for
academic and discipline reasons,
1988.
"They talk about Duke as a great academic institution. My gosh, they can't
hold a candle to a dropout from Indiana."
-referring to Mike Kryzewski, IU grad, and Knight coaching prodigy who
failed to complete his graduate degree in business while at IU.
"Chris Reynolds has a heart that is so big that you have to fold it over
about three times to get it into his chest."
-HT November 1992
"Congratulations on the birth of your first child. I'm glad to hear that
mother and son are doing well. P.S. Don't ever let your husband hold this
kid over anything but a bed."
-congratulating Uwe Blab's wife
"If I were in charge, I'd drug test all you son's of bitches, not just the
athletes."
-addressing IU students Q&As, A Season on the Brink
"A B.S. is just what it stands for. A M.S. is More of the Same. A PhD. Is
Piled Higher and Deeper."
-A Season on the Brink
"My humble suggestion would be that the $30,000 fine be used to provide
scholarships for underprivileged students rather than being used for
expenses for the NCAA tournament's annual golf meeting, which this summer is
in Cape Cod."
-commenting on his fine for postage berating of NCAA tournament official
"If universities want to save a little money, they ought to make some
cutbacks in administration and in faculty people who teach one class a
week."
-referring to NCAA suggestion that budgets be trimmed by reducing basketball
coaching staffs, HT January 1991
"Take a look at me. I'm 53 years old, out of shape, bad back. Who the hell
am I going to scare?"
-prior to 1994 NCAA tourney game when asked whether his players feared him
"I tell you what really fries my ass. When somebody gets on me for the way I
look. Fat. Overweight. Well, I may be overweight. But I'm sure not fat. And
I guarantee you, I'm a better athlete than any @#%$ body writing. To this
day, they don't want to play tennis with me. The don't want to play me in
golf. They don't want to @#%$ run with me..."
-Esquire March 1988
"You remember when you were a kid growing up, and believed in Santa Claus?
There's not much difference between Santa Claus and me today, you know.
We're two overweight lovable guys that kids really enjoy."
-Bob Knight, His Own Man
"What the hell difference does it make? So I'm 50."
-musing about his big five-oh, Indianapolis Monthly October 1990
"If there are any problems with Keith Smart, you are going to see his ass on
the bench. That's the way we handle ego at Indiana. You see the bench gives
your ass a message, then your ass gives your brain a message, and then your
brain will probably get Keith Smart to play a helluva lot better."
-Esquire March 1988
"They were using too much batter before. But, I got on their ass."
-responding to dining partner's comment regarding fried chicken at
Bloomington's Third Base Lounge
"I loved him. He could really handle me. I don't think I ever bothered that
SOB. But you ask him how I got on his ass."
-commenting on coaching 1984 Olympian Chris Mullin, Esquire March 1988
"A motivator isn't always the guy who just pats you on the ass. He's the guy
who kicks you in the ass occasionally."
-Indianapolis Monthly December 1982
"A turd."
-describing A Season on the Brink author John Feinstein
"If you're a coach you're going to get your ass beat now and then."
-Bob Knight, His Own Man
"There's some of those good guys like Carson and Marshall you're always
telling me about, and you get on their ass."
-telephone pep talk to New York Giants Coach Bill Parcels, Esquire March
1988
"Wayman [Tisdale] has been a special joy to me. I get on his ass and he
reacts well to it."
-Newsweek August 1984
"I guess that people are attracted, or whatever, to a no bullshit guy who
tells people to shove it up their ass when he thinks it's appropriate."
-ruminating on the popularity of A Season on the Brink, Esquire March 1988
"I'm not sure that an athlete is prepared to be a role model. He has a lot
of attention paid to him that he shouldn't have, and then the athletes tend
to think of themselves as better than they are."
-Herald Times November 1988
"If my primary purpose here at Indiana is to go out and win ballgames, I can
probably do that as well as anybody can. I would just cheat, get some money
from a lot of people around Indianapolis who want to run the operation that
way, and just go out and get the best basketball players I can. Then we'd
beat everybody all the time."
-HT January 1985
"I don't feel sorry for Len Bias...[He] was better than anyone in this
room...but he's dead. He's not sick, he's not hurt, he's dead...He wanted to
be one of the boys. He wanted to be cool. Well he was so cool, he's cold.
He's cold as heck."
-commenting on cocaine overdose of Len Bias, University of Maryland player,
Jet August 1987
"A coach flies off the handle in public and everyone sees him. I'd like to
be around to see what one of you guys does when somebody changes your copy."
-to a group of journalists, 1994
"All of us learn to write in second grade, and most of us go on to better
things."
-SI January 1981
"For me to get an award from the press, I know there's been no favoritism."
-after being named AP Coach of the Year 1989
"Bad officiating has almost ruined the basketball in this league."
-HT January 1986
"Through testing of Big Ten officials it is found that 79% of them are not
capable of counting to 5 correctly."
-referring to a rule change taking away a five second violation from a
closely guarded dribbler, November 1993
"While I have been very concerned about the way some things have been
handled in the Big Ten, in particular the officiating, which really
frustrated me in the past couple of years, I do not think my action in the
Purdue game was in any way necessary or appropriate."
-statement after infamous chair throwing episode against Purdue in Assembly
Hall 1985
"If my reaction to the jeering from the stands on Tuesday night offended any
true Hoosier fans, I am deeply sorry and wish to apologize. I realize that
you have not always agreed with what I have done or said. I probably
wouldn't agree with all you have said or did either. P. S. We have been
working on Patrick's passing."
-statement after he kicked his son, Patrick, at 1993 home game. Knight then
hurled invectives at the crowd when they booed him.
"I told my wife [first wife Nancy] when we got married that there were two
things she'd never do with me: play golf and go fishing."
-Indianapolis Monthly December 1982
"I think that as I grow older and older, maybe my dad was my biggest role
model. My dad was a very interesting guy. He died when I was 29. As time
passed, I think back more and more about what he was like, what he stood
for, and all the things that he said."
-HT November 1991
"We are going to redshirt Patrick [Knight] next year so he'll have me as a
coach for 5 years. When Patrick is done, having me as a father and a coach,
Patrick Knight will undoubtedly have the most blistered ass in the history
of basketball."
-HT May 1991
"I was doing undercover work at the Indiana Division of Natural Resources.
They have been told that several quail have infiltrated southern Indiana,
and they asked me to spend Sunday on a search and destroy mission. So I
did."
-Knight's reason for blowing off the 1984 Big Ten pre-season press
conference, HT
"Would it help you if I went back out, and came back in walking on my hands
or something?"
-responding to 1992 press conference question about why he didn't appear to
enjoy coaching
"You know, I wish all alumni would be canonized. That way we coaches would
only have to kiss your rings."
-addressing IU alumni group, A Season on the Brink
"Right here is the key to success in coaching. Probably no motivational
device I've ever come across is as good as this."
-brandishing a bullwhip, a gift from his players
"I've had all the challenges I need in my lifetime. I'd rather play against
a really bad team."
-responding to question asking if he enjoys facing tough defensive teams, HT
March 1994
"I once told a guy I would like to have carved on my tombstone, 'He was
honest, and he didn't kiss anybody's ass.'"
-Indianapolis Monthly December 1982
"I have often said this to some sanctimonious self-righteous critics that I
have: 'I would hope that when judgment day comes, they don't appear before
St. Peter's table with me, and only one space available for both of us, and
the judgment being made on who has done the most for fellow man. I have no
doubt St. Peter will turn to me and say, 'Robert, pass through the gate.'"
-NBC interview with Bob Costas, March 1994
"What a bullshit question. Anyone can play basketball, black, white, blue,
or green. You can think of a better question than that."
-on being asked whether blacks were more gifted than whites in basketball
"Hell, I don't even watch the pros. If the NBA was on Channel 5 and a bunch
of frogs making love were on Channel 4, I'd watch the frogs--even if they
came in fuzzy."
-on coaching in the pros
"Basketball may have been invented in Massachusetts, but it was made for
Indiana."
-on basketball in Indiana
"Steve, you can't stand there like a @#%$ statue. That's what they've got in
the harbor in New York: a @#%$ statue. I don't need that bullshit in here."
Knight told the assembly, "If any of you pass Steve Alford on campus, I want
you to stop him and ask him if he can spell defense."
-Knight told Steve Alford in practice one day
"That has got to be the worst defensive play by two Indiana guards I have
ever seen. I can almost excuse Keith, because he's new. But Alford, what's
your excuse? How can anybody play four years in this system and not learn
one thing about playing defense? I've wasted, totally wasted, three years
trying to teach you, and the minute you go into a defensive crouch I hear
people laughing in the stands."
-Alford's senior year
"I was worried about losing until I looked down the floor and saw Dale
Brown. Then I knew we had a chance."
-commenting on that stormy 1987 game with LSU
"You know, if any of you someday are on the street and you see that Wayne
Duke is about to get run over by a car, I would encourage you, I think, to
save him. But not if it's in any way inconvenient for you to do so."
-addressing an alumni group, on Big Ten Commissioner Wayne Duke
"That kind of from the players reflects on the entire operation of the team.
I'd rather have players concentrating on what we're going to do than on some
clever, wiseass thing to say to somebody else."
-on trash-talking by basketball players.
"Buckner contributes so much to any team that understands basketball. He
gets everybody to play better. It's a damn shame in a state like this that
loves good basketball that we have a professional organization up in
Indianapolis that clearly doesn't understand anything about the game."
-On Quinn Buckner (after Buckner was cut by the Pacers)
"They were a fine team, but an hour later we wanted to beat them again."
-an interview after thoroughly beating a 1984 Chinese Olympic team
A story about Knight's coaching class:
The first day of class, he always asks the students how many of them ever
had a coach they didn't like. The class is somewhat reluctant to raise their
hands, but eventually some do, which leads to some more. Now, they're
getting kind of brave, and in the end about half of the class has their hand
raised. Knight then looks around with a glare and responds: "Well you know
what, we don't like some of you little bastards either!" The hands shoot
down and from then on, no one raises their hand unless called upon.
First words to come out of Bob Knight's mouth at a post-game conference
after the IU/Purdue game:
"Don't crowd me!"
-2/10/98
Reporter: Did Luke Recker only play 10 minutes in the second half because he
was tired?
Bob Knight: "I was tired of watching his defense."
-IU/Northwestern post-game comments, 2/14/98
Speech to the students:
"I've got a little class I teach. There are a lot of you who wouldn't like
my class. I won't let you come in barefooted. You can't wear a hat. If you
cut class, it's an automatic C. And if you cut it twice, you'd better have
time to go to Drop and Add."
97-98 season:
"Larry, you're no more prepared for this than the Bank of America is to lend
money to the penguins."
-to Larry Richardson in practice
"If that's a good shot, then I'm a paratrooper in the Women's Chinese Navy."
-Coach K's website
"Richard, who the hell is going to guard him, God? God's not going to guard
him Richard. The Methodists control God and they're not going to let us use
him."
-to Mandeville after a blown defensive assignment in practice
"Luke, is it against your religion to play this way?"
-to Recker, who was out of position defensively
Reporter: Was there any possibility you wouldn't be coaching this game
[Oklahoma]?
Knight: "Unless I was broke, which I'm not."
-referring to $10,000 fine for comments made about Ted Valentine during the
IU/Illinois senior day game.
Reporter: If you wouldn't have had to miss an NCAA tournament game, would
you have taken the penalty? If I don't follow up on that question, I will
get fired.
Knight: "God damn, there are a lot of you guys I'd like to see get fired.
What the hell makes you think I'm going to save you? From the Christian
depths of my heart, I'll do what's necessary. So ask your question."
Reporter: Could you amplify on why?
Knight: "...Now put up a picture of me in the morning so every time you look
in the mirror you can look at that and say, damn, he saved my job."
-1998 NCAA pre-game press conference
"My wife thinks I'm outdated sometimes. What the hell am I going to say to
her? I just nod my head and keep right on."
-response to a question about what he would say to those who think he's
outdated
"The last three years we've lost the first game of the tournament, OK? The
four years prior to that we were the only team in America that went to the
regional four times. I haven't ever seen that written, which again doesn't
amaze me."
-responding to question about whether first-round win over Oklahoma in
overtime of NCAA tourney was special
"Patterson is such a good kid. I've never had a better kid. He has a
professional singing voice, but he has an artist's personality, not a
competitor's personality. It's tough for him to really compete the way he
has to to get the most out of the considerable ability he has. He's battled
that personality as long as he's been at Indiana."
-referring to Andrae Patterson's inconsistent play
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