Knight Integrity

When Bobby Knight speaks, people listen.  They listen in the same light as they rubber neck when passing a wreck.  They don’t want to, but damn it, they have to because there’s just something about a wreck that makes you want to look.  With Knight, you know there’s going to be a wreck.  Let’s face it, everything he’s ever done, said or been a part of has turned into a wreck.  Sure, he got IU where it mattered, but the cost was overwhelmingly not worth it in the big picture. 

 

His rant this time: integrity and the moral fabric of NCAA basketball.  He rightfully admits that he was a part of it, he knew it and he did it anyway.  But he qualifies himself by saying that he was alone in actually making the student part of,  “student athlete” actually relevant.  Here’s what we know.  Bobby knight has been delusional since the day he exited the womb or was hatched.  Bobby Knight is a hot head.  Mix those two together and its as lethal a combination as ammonia and bleach. We can’t really fault his integrity for that.  You can be a delusional hot head, pull most of the stunts he pulled, and actually still have integrity.   All you have to do is say, “my bad” and go on with life.  But when you consider how he bullied, lied, cheated, pulled strings and bullied his way out of taking responsibility for those actions, we have a real case of pot meets kettle.  Time and time again he did whatever it took to get out from underneath his messes.  Most of the time it worked, sometimes it didn’t.  All the while, the adoring fans of IU thought he could do no wrong.  He could do no wrong until he didn’t win the games he used to win or take IU to the places he had in the past.  At that point, Knight could do no right and had to go.  THIS was the audience for THIS integrity speech.  It’s more like Pot makes speech in front of kettle when you think about it.

 

The main aim of this latest rant was toward Calipari.  A modern day coach using the system Knight helped create.  Calipari isn’t the saint many UK fans think today.  He wasn’t the integrity-less demon that most of those same UK fans thought he was when he was at Memphis, and this includes me.  UK and its fans have their own integrity issues, but at least we aren’t making delusional speeches condemning it.  The issue at hand is how someone from within the coaching ranks who should know much more than fans could be so delusionally wrong on a topic?  What he doesn’t know Calipari has shown as much or more interest in making sure the Student is the key part of Student athlete as he ever was.  Cal has never hit or shot anyone that I’ve heard of.  Cal has never bullied his way out of trouble that I know of.  From what I’ve read, Cal did the right thing with the Camby situation and the NCAA did what many consider to be the wrong thing with eh Memphis situation.  At first I couldn’t, for the life of me, figure out why he would take shots at Calipari.   Why would knight do this?  Then it hit me!  There is timing here, my friends.  Take a look at what will happen very soon at UK.  UK will hit a milestone no other program has reached and Calipari will be the coach that does it even though he only plays a minuscule part in it.  I am certain that in Bobbie Knight’s delusional mind, HE has had a larger hand in it based on his losses to UK so he deserves more credit than Calipari. 

 

This is how this man thinks! It’s ok to choke players and get away with it.  It’s ok to shoot people and property with no recourse.  It’s OK to verbally abuse people for not calling you Sr or Mr. Knight.  All of this is OK if your name is Bobby Knight. 

 

At this point Knight will take his little integrity rant, put it in his back pocket as being yet another OKism, and go back to making more money from the very thing he spoke out against. Now that is Knight Integrity at its finest.