Hall of Fame basketball coach, Bob Knight, resigned from his post at Texas Tech yesterday morning, after 40+ years of coaching.  

Knight, never lacking for a surrounding of controversy, was the winningest men’s basketball coach in history, having chalked-up  “W” #902 last Saturday.  (Tennessee’s Pat Summitt is the winningest basketball coach.)  He was crude, harsh, and domineering.  But he was also brilliant, and wherever he went (Army, Indiana, and Texas Tech) he won without even a hint of cheating on or off the court. His peers respected and liked him. His players went to class and graduated. The overwhelming majority of those who played for him respect him and remain loyal to him.  That says a lot to me.   

The rhetorical question that circulates sports talk is: Would you want your son to play for Coach Knight?   

Well, I understand that not everyone responds to his style.  But if my boys loved basketball, and he offered to coach them, I think they would benefit from playing for Coach Knight.  

Coach John Wooden probably summed it up best: 

“I don’t think there’s ever been a better teacher of the game of basketball than Bob. I don’t always approve of his methods, but his players for the most part are very loyal to him. I would say that no player that ever played for him would not say he did not come out a stronger person.”