Todd Jadlow, a forward on the 1987 championship team, wrote in a 2016 memoir that, among other things, Knight cracked a clipboard over his head, squeezed his testicles and made players run laps while barking like dogs. But Jadlow stayed in the Indiana program and, after he wrote the book, told ESPN, “I still have a lot of respect for him and look at him as a father figure.”
Still, over the years, Knight’s demands and personality drove more than a few players from Indiana. Sports Illustrated reported in 1976 that one former recruit, Mike Miday, quit the team, telling his student newspaper, “I deserved better than to be treated as an object and demeaned in public,” and adding, “I’m terrified of the guy.” In 1997, Jason Collier left Indiana, telling The Springfield News-Sun in Ohio that he couldn’t adapt to Knight’s style. He explained, “I tried different tactics — blocking out the yelling, like people told me to do — but when people yell at you, you take notice.”
But belligerence and volatility were not Knight’s only defining characteristics. He was a principled recruiter, and among his many demands on players was that they attend class. Players, friends and writers noted that he could be gracious, charming, charitable and playful. He was articulate as well, often in his own defense:
“I don’t think there’s an official in the country who knows as much about basketball as I do,” he said in a Playboy interview in 1984 about his rough treatment of the referees. “Not even close. Or as much as any other coach knows. And when I’ve got a complaint, I want it listened to. I’ve seen an official not watch for traveling. I’ve seen him watch the flight of the ball instead of the shooter’s hand afterward — whether or not he gets hit. I think that basketball officiating is tough, but I don’t think there are very many officials who know how to watch logically from one to two to three to four to five in a given position on the floor. And when I see somebody violate the logical progression of what he should be looking for, then I’m going to let him know about it.”
Many of Knight’s coaching colleagues considered him not just a genius coach but an exemplary human being. His former players include All-Americans and successful pros like Kent Benson, Quinn Buckner, Mike Woodson (a former head coach of the Knicks) and the Hall of Fame guard Isiah Thomas, many of whom have spoken of a love-hate relationship with their coach while they played for him but an enduring admiration afterward.
