| | INDIANAPOLIS -- Indiana University officials don't doubt the
authenticity of the videotape showing coach Bob Knight grabbing a
player by the throat, although they have questions about it.
The tape, aired for the first time Tuesday night, appears to
support former player Neil Reed's accusation that Knight grabbed
him by the neck during a practice.
"There's no question in our mind that it was Reed," IU vice
president Christopher Simpson told The Associated Press on
Wednesday. "There's no question that that was an authentic tape of
an IU basketball practice and that that was Neil Reed and Coach
Knight."
|
Son: Knight feels betrayed
|
|
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) -- Bob Knight feels betrayed by the release of a videotape showing him grabbing former player Neil
Reed's neck during basketball practice, his son says.
Pat Knight, a former Indiana player and now an assistant at
Indiana, said the tape was taken by former assistant Ron Felling,
who was fired in December. Felling could not be reached for
comment.
"Here's a guy like Felling who steals that tape. He's going
around telling people that he's got it," Pat Knight said.
"Thirteen years of loyalty to someone, and he's pulling that
kind of stuff. It makes me sick," the younger Knight told The
Indianapolis Star.
The tape surfaced Tuesday night when it was aired by CNN/Sports
Illustrated. Indiana officials, investigating a claim by Reed that
Knight choked him during a practice in 1997, said they knew of the
tape's existence but did not know who had it or who supplied it to
the Atlanta-based news network.
"We have known of the possibility of a tape existing for
several weeks and have tried diligently to get the tape back and
we've been unsuccessful," university vice president Christopher
Simpson said Thursday. "We still believe it is our property and
would like it back."
Simpson said he did not know why Felling was fired or whether it
was he who gave it to CNN.
|
Simpson said, however, there was no way to know when the tape
was made. Reed transferred from Indiana in 1997.
"That's one of our questions," Simpson said. "Could there
have been another incident like this? No, we think this is it. Neil
said this was it."
It is difficult to identify the player from the grainy tape,
although it clearly shows Knight grabbing a player by the front of
the neck, snapping his head backward. Reed, who saw the tape for
the first time Tuesday night when it was aired by CNN/SI, said he
was that player.
The tape will be examined by a two-man committee of Indiana
trustees investigating accusations by former players of physical
and emotional abuse by Knight.
Last month, Reed prompted the investigation by making the
accusation against Knight during an interview aired by CNN/Sports
Illustrated.
John Walda, the president of the board of trustees, and
Frederick Eichhorn, a trustee and former president of the Indiana
State Bar Association, were appointed by IU president Myles Brand
three weeks ago to investigate Reed's claim. They went to the CNN
headquarters in Atlanta on Tuesday to see the tape.
Knight and Walda did not return phone calls from the AP on
Wednesday, and athletic director Clarence Doninger referred all
questions to Simpson. Knight earlier denied choking Reed, although
he said he has grabbed many players to move them into position on
the court during practices.
On Wednesday, Indianapolis television station WRTV aired a tape
of a 1992 speech to a group of business leaders in which Knight
describes how he motivated a player during the 1976 NCAA
tournament.
"You take the bottom two fingers, ring finger and little finger
of the stronger hand, and you place it in the neck of the garment
being worn by the person you want to motivate," Knight said, as
audience members laughed. "With the middle finger and the index
finger of that same hand, you grab the Adam's apple and with the
thumb, with a little practice, you can control the answers you're
going to get from this person."
Associate athletic director Steve Downing, who played for Knight
and was the Big Ten's MVP in 1973, told The Herald Times of
Bloomington on Wednesday that former assistant coach Ron Felling is
the likely source of the tape aired on CNN.
Downing said Felling told him last month he preserved a tape of
the practice and was holding it as his "trump card." Felling, who
left the team in December after 14 years as Knight's assistant,
could not be reached for comment. Downing did not return a call
from the AP.
Team trainer Tim Garl, who last month denied Knight grabbed
Reed, backtracked on Wednesday.
"All I can say is, what's on the tape, I did not witness that.
Obviously, it occurred," Garl told the AP. "When I said it didn't
happen, I meant I never witnessed it."
Simpson said the university officials had known for several
weeks of the tape's existence but did not know who had it or who
supplied it to CNN. He said the investigation is expected to be
completed by late June, within the 90-day period originally
requested by Brand. | |
ALSO SEE
The real evidence against Knight: Ws and Ls
Knight's supporters gather for rally on Indiana campus
Report: IU releases details of Knight's contract
 |
