I respect all of his accomplishments as a basketball coach. There was no gray area with him- He either really liked you or really disliked you. While I applaud his rationale of making sure every player went to class and got their degree... I did not agree with many of his methods. With respect, I think he went overboard with many players, fans, and the media. Depending on his mood he could be a very frightening person to approach on the wrong day.
Yeah, I have Feinstein in the WaPost in front of me, telling the story of Indiana’s recruiting of Calbert Cheaney. Knight went to see him play and Cheaney had a bad game. Knight reams out his assistants for wasting his time taking him to see a stiff, and orders them to stop recruiting Cheaney. Cheaney commits to Evansville, which was at the time coached by Jim Crews, who played on Knight’s undefeated 1976 team and was an Knight assistant for eight years. Then Knight visits a summer camp where Cheaney showed his true talent and Knight asks his assistants why Indiana isn’t recruiting Cheaney. “You told us not to.” “Feel him out, see if he’s interested in Indiana.” Cheaney switches to Indiana and Crews is stunned that Knight would recruit a player who had committed to him, a former player and assistant.
“If some other coach had done that to me, you’d call him every name in the book. I know coaches do this sort of thing but how could you do this to me?”
“You’d be nothing in basketball if it wasn’t for me.”
“You know something coach, the saddest part of your life is that you treat your enemies better than you treat your friends.”
