The Firing of Bobby Knight

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The Firing of Bobby Knight

Bobby Knight, longtime Indiana men’s head basketball coach, was recently fired. This firing sparked a controversy among basketball fans throughout the nation; did he deserve to be fired? I believe that Bobby Knight deserved to be fired. Although coach Knight is one of the best coaches in the nation and has earned the respect of countless numbers of fans including myself, I do not believe that a coach should be able to act the way he acted and get away with it. Coach Knight’s record for abusing players, abusing the media, and being a jerk should speak for itself and there is no doubt in my mind that Bobby Knights firing can be justified.

Bobby Knight’s college basketball career goes back over 40 years. In 1960 as a player for Ohio State University, Knight helped the Buckeyes capture the national championship. This feat will later make Knight one of only two men to play on and coach a national championship team in college basketball, the other being Dean Smith. Knight’s Ohio State Buckeye teams went on to win two more Big Ten championships in the next two years. Knight’s fellow teammates can remember him as being a tenacious defender on the court who would stop at nothing to win a game. His competitive nature allowed him to continue his basketball career after his playing years were over.

After playing, Knight went on to coach at Army as an assistant coach at the age of 22. After just two years of being assistant coach he was appointed the head coaching job at Army. Knight had a short but successful career at Army, in just six years he amassed 102 wins. In 1972 he was appointed the job at Indiana University, where he would coach for 28 years. In 1973, after only one year of coaching at ...

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...m of Knight supporters who thought that he was treated unfairly. These supporters obviously didn’t realize that Knight had a serious anger problem that needed attention. Knight was allowed to coach for 20 years with this problem being overlooked and most of his supporters don’t understand that. Knight was obviously a success as a basketball coach, his record shows that, but he was a tremendous failure as an example on how a coach should act. You just can’t expect to keep your job while treating people the way that Bob Knight treated people. Coach Knight undoubtedly deserved to be fired. The evidence against Knight is so overwhelming that I do no understand how he kept his job as long as he did. Knight’s long career as the second most winning coach in NCAA history was a failure in my mind because he could never understand that basketball is indeed only a game.

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