In case you haven't heard, Bobby Knight... wait for it... touched a player on the chin to push his head up so he was looking at Knight. Of course, this was enough to elicit top stories online at ESPN and (according to what I've heard, I don't watch the show anymore) the lead story on Sportscenter.
Look, I don't really like Bobby Knight at all for various reasons. But this is just getting ridiculous. Was it maybe a little excessive? Sure. Was it as bad as stuff he's done in the past? No. Was it newsworthy? Not in the least.
It apparently wasn't enough that the player, the player's parents, and the AD didn't think it was a big deal. I mean, it's not like they matter in this, do they?
Let me just ask one question... if Coach K did the same thing, would this be a story? If Roy Williams did the same thing, would it be a story? Would anyone even know about it outside the player and coach? Nope.
But if the media can't talk about this, what can they complain about?
For good measure, here's a Sportscenter clip with Bob Knight's top 10 soundbites... some are rather funny (Knight can definitely be funny), some highlight a lot of the things I don't like about him. Before the clip I'll end with a quote from Steve Rushin of SI a few years ago that at least I found funny:
Indiana University basketball coach Bobby Knight likes to say of sportswriters: "Most of us learn to write by the second grade, then move on to bigger things.'' Most of us stop throwing chairs and calling ourselves Bobby by the second grade, too.