The Bob Knight interview on ESPN went along swimmingly for part of the show,
with Knight - uh, Mr. Knight - making calm, rational comments about his side of
the story. At least until Jeremy Schaap kept pressing. At first Knight got
annoyed, and kept telling Schaap to not interrupt him (he was basically trying to
get him back to the subject, rather than let him wander off on tangents.Â
Knight, who recently talked of the need in society for addressing people civilly
and with respect, jumped Schaap, saying "you're as not as good as
your dad, and you need to remember that."Â Or words to that effect,
anyway.Â
We were hoping Schaap would say "well, Coach, people could say that
about your son Pat too, so maybe we can just leave family attacks out of this
and get back to the interview."
Anyway, Knight was scoring some points up until then. You could tell he
was getting irritated and trying to figure out how to express it without losing
it on the air. In other words, though he said something cruel, he managed to
suppress his urges at least somewhat. Too bad he didn't manage that earlier.
Along the way, he also called Neil Reed, Doninger's secretary, and IU Spokesman Christopher Simpson liars. That wasn't the word he used, but when you say someone is telling falsehoods or not telling the truth, you are by default of course calling them liars.Â