Knight Time
Mark Heisler and Steve Delsohn, who wrote Bob Knight: The Unauthorized Biography, talk about their book, Bob Knight, and basketball.
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MH: Um, well the thing about Knight is that he basically stays Bob Knight. It’s admirable and confounding and terrible at the same time, the strength that he has. I think that a year away is really an eye-opener to what the game really means to you. But he has been much more circumspect at Texas Tech. There haven’t been any incidents in the past few years, except for the cafeteria incident. He certainly hasn’t grabbed anyone in the throat. There is a thirty-second diatribe we have on record, which is just filled with obscenities. And we showed that to Andre Emmett and asked, “Does this sound like the guy you know?” and he said, “Definitely. Yes.” So, I guess a leopard doesn’t change its spots, but Knight seems to have changed direction to some degree.
SD: He’s calmer, but he’s not calm. By his standards, he’s eased up, but not compared with most human beings. He’s slightly less manic on the sidelines during games. His second marriage has really changed things for him a lot, I’d say. Knight is happier; his wife is a basketball coach herself, and she understands him better than anyone could, I think.
texasmonthly.com: You usually cover the NBA (Heisler) and ESPN features (Delsohn). What inspired this intensive coverage of college basketball? Was it Knight himself?
MH: This project was started by Delsohn, but I’ve been around Knight a little bit. I covered UCLA for one year, and I was on the Olympic beat when Knight was here in 1984. I definitely found him different [laughs]. I have written about him quite a lot, for somebody who’s not a college basketball writer. I know a lot of writers who are close to him, so I used to talk to them about him. Before this, I had spent time doing lots of projects on him, writing about him.
SD: Just that he’s a fascinating character and an even more fascinating project.
texasmonthly.com: As experts on sports and sports fans, how do you think that die-hard college basketball fans perceive Knight? Do Texan sports fans differ from the status quo at all?
MH: First of all, I don’t think there’s a big difference between the way Texas college basketball fans or California basketball fans or Indiana fans or anybody would react. It’s basically the same game, and it’s basically about winning. If you happen to really care, Knight really does try to do it the right way. He doesn’t cheat. There’s a real dark side to college basketball, which is all about getting the players, especially if you’re not one of the top two or three places. Duke can snap its fingers and get whoever it wants. Farther down the food chain, people are really fighting for players; they’re buying them and giving them money under the table and so on and so forth. Knight doesn’t do any of that. And I think anyone anywhere would find it admirable that he plays by the rules as written and not the rules as practiced. It’s all about winning and losing. I think if Knight did everything he did and had a career-winning percentage under .500, nobody would’ve paid attention to him. When he went to the tournament last year and won three rounds deep into the tournament, that got people’s attention. And all of a sudden, everybody perks right back up and says, “Oh, Bob Knight, here he is again.” There are people who would tell you that geography makes a lot of difference, but I would be one to say that people are more alike than we commonly say they are.
SD: Texas Tech and IU fans adore him. Above everything, Knight is an amazing coach. He’s made a lot of enemies, but he likes it—the spotlight, the controversy. He knows what will get him negative attention, but he doesn’t care. He likes to blame the media, and he loves the attention, he really does. And no, I think that what applies in Texas applies everywhere.
texasmonthly.com: What do you predict for Knight’s future at Texas Tech? Glory? Infamy? IU again? Victory?
MH: You just can’t say with Knight. But I would say I’d expect the rest of his tenure at Texas Tech to be pretty much like the years he’s already put in there. I wouldn’t expect him to have a meltdown, I wouldn’t expect him to do anything terrible. I wouldn’t expect him to be as successful as he was at IU, because he just can’t get the same kind of players. The other thing is, the longer he’s there, the smoother that program will run and the more it will become his program. The other thing is, I think it’s really great for him to have his son alongside him. Pat’s a very strong personality in his own right, and Bob thinks a lot of him. Pat may play a very important role in not letting his father get down too low, getting in a mood like his down-cycles at Indiana.
SD: He’s not having a great year right now, but I suspect he’ll continue to be successful. I really think he’ll break records for all-time wins in college basketball. He’s close.
texasmonthly.com: Do you know how Bob Knight himself has responded to your book?
MH: As far as I know, he knows about it and isn’t crazy about the idea. He didn’t talk to us, not that that was surprising. I wouldn’t know, but I wouldn’t expect him to be throwing a party because of it.
SD: I’m sure he hasn’t read it, but it’s too early to say what his response will be.
texasmonthly.com: Any other similar works in progress right now?
MH: Uhhh, no. [Laughs] Just working the day job right now.
SD: Mark and I are talking about whether we might want to do something, but so far, there’s nothing concrete in the works.
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