In another life, I was a high school basketball coach. To give you a hint how long ago, Rick Pitino was the head coach at Boston University. Back then, I was an admirer of two coaches with as diverse personalities as Obama and Hillary.
My coaching idols during those basketball days were John Wooden at UCLA and Bobby Knight at Indiana. I loved Wooden’s people and game-management genius and Knight’s overall basketball genius. The calmness of Wooden and the fire of Knight were both inspiring traits in their own right. Combine the two and you have the greatest basketball coach ever.
Back in the days of short-shorts in basketball, fiery coaches were more the norm than not – and while I admired Wooden, my coaching style was more like that of Knight. However, as years passed, I’ve been able to change with the times and become more Wooden-like with a calmer and more professional demeanor. Unfortunately, the same can not be said for Knight.
Watching Coach Knight’s antics the past decade, I came to the conclusion a long time ago that it was time for him to fade into coaching history. His recent press conference with his grandson only confirms that feeling. I’ve watched many embarrassing moments in Knight’s career that have made me wonder how this man could have been a coaching idol of mine, but this one could be the worst. I’m now even embarrassed for him as a man.
I thank my lucky stars that I also looked to Coach Wooden for inspiration.
Do not underestimate the fire of Coach Wooden. He was as fiery as Bob Knight, just a little more discret than Knight. The words that passed through that rolled up program were direct and to the point although he always drew the line at cursing. Good golly was about as rough as it got.
Comment by arnold stang — January 7, 2008 @ 12:16 am
Bobby Knight has completely lost it! It’s hard to believe that his family would allow him to bring his grandson to the press conference as he did.
We all need more coaches like Coach Wooden!
Comment by Manny — January 7, 2008 @ 1:20 pm
Knight has become a cartoon character. Coach Wooden is in a class by himself - just listen to how his players talk of him.
Comment by GZG — January 8, 2008 @ 8:28 am
There’s a great piece about Coach Wooden in HOFMAG.com. Below is the link to the story. Enjoy.
http://www.hofmag.com/content/view/440/60/
Comment by Gil — January 8, 2008 @ 8:30 am