Today in good sportswriting: Karen Crouse sneaks in classic Bob Knight

August 12th, 2008 | Posted by PostmanE

It’s not often enough that I just stop and say, hey, that’s a good piece of sports journalism, but today is that day. The New York Times’ Karen Crouse not only wrote an interesting profile of 50-meter freestyle swimmers, she dropped a semi-funny (or maybe I’m just not caffeinated enough — trying to ditch the habit) reference to Bob Knight:

Jones’s stroke rate was high, indicating he was spinning his wheels, not catching the water as efficiently with each arm pull as he had in the preliminaries when he was clocked in an American record of 21.59 seconds. Garrett Weber-Gale, who took first at the trials, lowered it to 21.47. “I was rotating my arms too fast,” Jones said. Or in layman’s terms, he said, “I panicked.”

The 50 freestyle is perhaps the most misunderstood of Olympic swimming events. Because it is the first race most children try when dipping their big toes into year-around competitive swimming, it is easy to get the wrong impression. To be a specialist in the event is to continually fight the perception that, to paraphrase former basketball coach Bob Knight, all swimmers learn to race the 50 freestyle in the second grade and most go on to better things.

Yes, Karen Crouse, you sly journalistic devil you. Working in a self-reference about Bob Knight’s views on journalism into a sports journalism piece about swimming is notably brilliant. Also: So meta my head burst. But again, that might just be the caffeine.

Bob Knight on his cellie

May 16th, 2008 | Posted by PostmanR

I feel if the wacky and wild Web was around during Bob Knight’s heyday, he would have been fired from IU in, oh, about 1984. (Although, this theory presupposes that kids and parents of the ’80s act like those of today, which, they must certainly did not. You could be a crazy bastard and people were OK with it back then.) You know, a couple videos would have gone up, some pictures would have been snapped, and Knight might have been shown the door. Which would have been a damn shame.

So, it’s fitting then, that Knight in his post-coaching life (for now) is popping up on the Web with bits like this, taking a phone call from Florida Atlantic’s AD and advising him on a new coach during a speech he was giving in Nashville, IN. (Not to mention, that whole hunting fiasco from October.)

Bob Knight is a YouTube star. No doubt about it.

{Via FanHouse.}

EDIT: Me and E just had a long debate about this. Our resolution:

me: the argument is that bob knight’s antics would have been amplified a lot more if the Internet was around
25 years ago
and the culture is
how it is today
E: ok, here’s what i agree with
the media, FOR SURE
like, if the internet was around, if youtube was around, and so forth, he would have been in hot water way before 2000 or whatever it was
but the part i disagree with is that the culture is all that different; maybe a little bit, but i don’t think people’s acceptance of insane behavior is any lesser or greater than it was in the mid80’s
me: well that’s maybe what it is then
that it’s not so much knight or the player’s fault or whatever or that they’ve changed
it’s what around them
that has changed, media amplification etc.
so like, that’s what makes it different
not a culture or whatever
E: i concur!

Win your very own chance to golf with Bobby Knight

April 23rd, 2008 | Posted by PostmanR

I average about two rounds of golf a year. It’s not that I don’t like golf, it’s that the game requires an insane amount of dedication and hours upon hours of frustration for you to get good at it. Even then, a botched putt or errant drive grinds your gears. It’s a never ending battle with yourself. (Just ask Tiger!) And plus, 18 holes takes like what, four hours? Think of how many e-mails I’ll have by the time I step off the course!

So combine all the frustration together for a man like Bobby Knight and you get this. Him golfing, swearing, throwing clubs. (That video will never, ever get old by the way.) So get this: instead of only seeing Bobby toss clubs you can now be in the line of fire. Yes friends, if you got the money for it, you can spring for a round of golf with the general.

As part of his yearly fundraiser for cancer research, Lakewood Ranch resident Dick Vitale is offering the opportunity for a round of golf with Bob Knight and John Havlicek on May 16 at the Lakewood Ranch Golf & Country Club.

Bids for two threesomes will be accepted until 11:59 p.m. Saturday for nine holes with each basketball legend.

Bids start at $10,000 and include 18 holes of golf in the morning, a pre-gala party and the third annual Dick Vitale Gala for Cancer Research that evening at the Ritz-Carlton in Sarasota.

To bid, log on to www.cmarket.com, click on “view auction” and enter “Dick Vitale” in the box for “search item.”

One tip: don’t bring up Indiana if you’re out there on the links with him. He tends to get a bit angry about that.

{HT: Larry Brown Sports.}

Bob Knight sells out, but is it funny?

April 7th, 2008 | Posted by PostmanE

AA has the commercial, of course, and the question is worth asking: Funny? Or not funny? I genuinely can’t decide.

The look Knight gives: funny. The chair throwing nonsense: not funny. Talking car? Funny. Quasi-German accent? Not funny.

SO TORN.

(Also, big hat tip to my girlfriend, who apparently also reads AA now, and with greater efficiency than I. I have no idea what is going on.)

Digger Phelps can’t stop touching Bob Knight

March 17th, 2008 | Posted by PostmanE

Fellow FanHouser Charles Rich has this Red Lasso video of Digger Phelps and Bob Knight analyzing basketball together, if by “analyzing” you mean “Digger touching Bob Knight’s shoulder in a gentle, reassuring, way.” This is one of the weirder portions of Knight’s time on ESPN. Not only did Knight fail to do anything interesting (that is, until Dick Vitale got a bit too friendly last night), Digger and Knight couldn’t be worse matches on camera. Knight is relaxed and hoarse and slouching — Digger is erect, handsy, and tielighter-clad. These two can’t possibly be friends.

In other news, Red Lasso is the best thing to happen to blogs since Youtube. I have no idea how it’s legal, but it apparently is. Yay for murky fair use!

Jeremy Schaap is not pleased

March 14th, 2008 | Posted by PostmanE

Is Bob Knight a member of the media? I can’t decide. He claims he isn’t, but just because someone claims they’re not something doesn’t make it so. For example, if you’re a blog, and you do breaking news and are consistently wrong, you can’t say “oh, I’m not a journalist, so it doesn’t matter.” That’s naughty.

Still, I don’t know if I consider what Digger Phelps does to be “media” in the sense that Bob Knight means when he deals with the media. Clearly, Knight is referring to people who report and analyze and pester him with questions far below his intellectual patience. Digger Phelps does not do that. Digger Phelps wears pink ties and makes obvious statements about basketball. I’m torn here.

Anyway, it doesn’t really matter, because the whole point of this is that Jeremy Schaap still hates Bob Knight. And through Jeremy’s hatred, we all win (HT: AA)

Schaap, on vacation and not upset at missing Knight’s opening night, said: “He has a long way to go before he’s as good as Digger Phelps. And I mean that 100 percent.”

Slam! You’d think that after Knight named his cat Schaap, all would be forgiven. Apparently not.

Bob Knight talks shop with Jay Leno

February 12th, 2008 | Posted by PostmanR

The Bob Knight farewell media tour continued last evening with a stop on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.” (Ha look! Knight showed up in a ref’s shirt with a whistle around his neck!) Some of the stuff within is rehashed, but hey, Jay has to ask him why he stepped down. He would not be doing his job properly if he had not.

Also, Larry the Cable Guy was the previous guest, so he chimed in here and there throughout Knight’s interview. I have a feeling Larry and Bobby left the set and went and shot rabbits just off the 405 up in the mountains after the show. They seem like perfect hunting buddies, no?

Pretty soon, he’ll start referring to Pat Knight as a bastard in a basket

January 7th, 2008 | Posted by PostmanR

So, we both ventured out of our apartments yesterday (on a Sunday!) to catch P.T. Anderson’s There Will Be Blood. Though a bit sluggish throughout the middle, it was also pretty brilliant. And crazy. Reallyfreakinginsane, actually. Its main character, Daniel Plainview, becomes more deranged with the passage of time and seems to only exist for himself as he spirals into disillusionment.

What I’m getting at here is this: I’m fairly certain that if you were to splice this clip of Bob Knight and his grandson into the movie somewhere, I wouldn’t have noticed the difference. Bob Knight: he continues to bring the awesome.

Note: Sorry for the longer YouTube. If you can get this video to work, it cuts all the good parts into one and makes my point much stronger. As it stand now, you probably have no clue what I’m talking about. Which is usually how things go down here anyways.

We interrupt this post-game interview to bring you ‘Gooooo Raaaaaiders’

December 5th, 2007 | Posted by PostmanR

And here you thought Bob Knight was the only asshole associated with Texas Tech.

BTW: I think I just broke the Postmen record for most consecutive quick throwaway posts with five. If you want to read something I actually spent some time on, you can peep my latest CS Weekly joint — which on a scale of 1-10 is like a four.

In which Ted Williams pulls his best Bob Knight

January 15th, 2007 | Posted by PostmanR

I know, I know. We’ve talked, pimped and linked this video way too much in our somewhat short life here on the Interweb. But the similarities here warrant it, trust me.

This is Ted Williams doing a promotional bit, golf club in hand, fist on hip, flexing the club as he swears profusely after a mess up. It’s pretty uncanny to the aforementioned Knight video.

Insert own post ending here with either a joke about Williams in a freezer or Bob Knight and a chair throw. It’s a choose your own adventure!

Also, apologies if this is a widespread video on the Tubes. I have never seen it before.