YouTube Video: Why Bob Knight Did Not Respect UCLA’s John Wooden
If you never knew about this, it’ll change the way you think about UCLA’s dynasty
After Bob Knight passed recently, a lot of stories have been told and videos posted about his life and times. Some if is the obvious stuff - the chair toss, the LSU fan, Steve Alford walking home from the airport, the insistence on absolute discipline in his players despite a desvastating inability to apply any comparable discipline to his own life.
There are some surprises though. There are some about his experiences with Michael Jordan on the 1984 Olympic team, for instance, and also about his advice to Portland to draft him (a Portland official said they needed a big man and Knight told them to just play Jordan at center, because he was that good. Shame they didn’t listen).
Then there’s this one, where Knight explains his disdain for legendary UCLA coach John Wooden, and he has a real argument.
If you don’t know the history, UCLA had a notorious booster named Sam Gilbert who was “helping” with recruiting.
Wooden allegedly told Knight that “I just don’t know what to do with Sam Gilbert” and Knight said he sure as hell would have (one reason why Gene Bartow only lasted two seasons in Westwood as Wooden’s successor was because he feared that Gilbert had mafia ties and could turn on him at any point)..
There are a lot of negative things you could say about Knight. He was deeply unpleasant to many people and that’s being kind. He was a bully. He was intolerant and, in the end, he alienated the people who cared about him the most, including Krzyzewski.
He made his life very, very difficult and made some other lives impossible.
You can say all of those things and more. But what you can never say is this: Knight cheated. Because he didn’t. He was meticulous about the rules, even when they seemed foolish or idiotic. He would say exactly what he thought if it was stupid, but he would obey the rules meticulously.
He had many flaws, but no one could ever buy Bob Knight.