Knight: ‘The good far outweighed the bad’ at IU

After two hours of laughs and anecdotes, former IU basketball coach Bob Knight concluded his speech at the Little Nashville Opry Saturday by thanking the event’s coordinators.\nHe said he was grateful to them for bringing him back to Indiana and allowing him to reminisce about his years in Assembly Hall.\n“Thank you to you for allowing me to once again return to some great memories, some great thoughts about players and games in what for many, many years was a tremendous situation,” Knight said.\nKnight delivered his speech in front of four banners: three for his national championships and one marking his 880th win, an NCAA men’s basketball record. But to set the mood for his talk, Knight took a shot at the stage’s set.\n“This is the sorriest setup I have ever seen,” he said, to which the crowd burst into laughter.\nKnight kept the capacity crowd – interspersed with red Texas Tech and crimson IU gear – attentive as he weaved stories ranging from his early coaching career, his experiences at ESPN as an analyst, advice to and from other coaches, all the way through his record-setting win.\nOverall, however, it was his concluding words which really touched on his tenure at IU.\n“The difficulties in losing a game, or in not having a kid play as well as he should or a problem that a kid might create, or whatever, all of those things really kind of pale in significance to the great kids, the great teams that we had,” Knight said. “I really feel privileged to have coached those kids here.”\nHe went on to say he was very appreciative of the opportunity he had to coach at IU with the program’s fan support.\nKnight, the coach of three national championships in 29 years with IU, was dismissed on Sept. 11, 2000, after then-IU President Myles Brand said Knight violated a zero-tolerance behavior policy.\nThe firing was bitter and met with resentment by students and other fans alike. But Knight finished his speech by saying, “When I look back at things – things happen, sometimes they’re right, sometimes they’re wrong, it doesn’t really make a lot of difference. I think the difference is what went on prior to that. And I can easily say that the good far outweighed the bad.”