| | Associated Press
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Bob Knight says he doesn't need
professional help in controlling his temper and that his behavior
in 29 years as Indiana coach "overall has been good."
"If you took the percentages of times that I have really gone
overboard in whatever way, in whatever circumstances, that's a
pretty small percentage of all the circumstances I've been in," he
told ESPN Tuesday night in a SportsCenter Special interview with Roy Firestone and Digger Phelps.
|  | | Bob Knight, right, faced Roy Firestone on his own turf. |
Under a new "zero-tolerance" policy imposed on him by the
school, Knight said he needs to keep his temper under control at
all times.
"To me, it is kind of a simple equation: I have to be able to
do all the time basically what I've done most of the time now," he
said.
On May 15, following an investigation into allegations that
Knight choked a player during practice in 1997, university
president Myles Brand suspended him for three games, fined him
$30,000 and imposed the policy that will result in his immediate
dismissal for any act that is deemed to be embarrassing to the
school.
Asked if he needed professional help to control his temper,
Knight responded emphatically: "No, I don't."
Knight said that as far as disciplining himself about his anger,
"in most cases, I'm pretty good."
"I think that I've obviously made a mistake here and a mistake
there," he said. "But I don't think those mistakes define the
person.
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Interview excerpts
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On whether anger controls him or he controls his anger:
"I think that if I'm out here really upset and really mad all
the time, then that controls me. But I really don't think that's
the situation. There's nobody on the face of the Earth that occasionally
hasn't had a problem with overreaction."
On the investigation:
"I think I've learned a lot of things about a lot of people and
a lot of things about myself."
On whether he considered resigning:
"I think you always consider options when confronted with any
given set of circumstances. But that was never for me much of a
valid option."
On "zero tolerance":
"My understanding of that is this: I've got to be able to do
what coaching entails: instruction, positioning, demonstration.
Those things that go along with accepted coaching principles are I
think the things I've always utilized in terms of coaching."
On whether his winning record allowed him to stay:
"I wouldn't want winning or going to the Final Four or anything
like that to override legitimate concerns that people might have."
On the support of IU fans:
"Let me just say this to you: Keep rooting for us. Because of
your support and the extent of your support, I'm not going to let
you people out there down."
On having the last word:
"I think sometimes when I'm right about an issue, I don't
handle it particularly well. I'm sometimes a little too
demonstrative. I go at it too hard. There are some things that I
have to change. That's where my wife (Karen) has come into help me in many,
many ways. One is the signs she has around our house, 'The horse is
dead, get off it.' I've always been kind of confrontational and
part of that is let's get in the last word. Sometimes, I've
concluded it is not always necessary to get in the last word."
On news reports' effect on recruiting:
"I don't think that's going to hurt us a bit. ... Our primary
recruiters are our players -- past and present. And there's a pretty
big difference in what our players say -- those who have been here and played to the end of eligibility -- about playing at Indiana and
what it's meant to them than the perception that comes out of the
media regarding what Indiana basketball is all about."
On apologizing:
"There are a lot of people along the way that I've apologized
to individually. I have no problem with that when I'm wrong. I've never killed anybody. I've never created a family to
separate.
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"I've understood for a long time -- maybe way back when I was
playing in high school -- that temper is a problem for me," Knight
said. "I think that in many, many cases I've conquered it, and in
some cases I haven't."
Knight also told ESPN in the live, one-hour interview that he would like
to see a legal lottery established, to benefit the school library,
for people to pick the time when he will "blow up."
"The longer the time when I'll blow up, the more expensive it
will be," he said. "What we'll do then is turn everything over to
the library. When it is all said and done, the library is going to
make a lot of money out of this."
Knight was asked what he thought his legacy at Indiana would be.
"My legacy has never been any big deal," Knight said. "My
legacy is what comes back to me when I look in the mirror. I've
made mistakes, I've screwed up. ... I know what I've given to this
game."
He also said that resigning "was never for me much of a valid
option."
Knight's remarks to ESPN, and earlier in the day to a
hand-picked group of reporters, were his first extensive comments
since Brand imposed the sanctions and gave him one last chance to
keep his job.
During the investigation, other charges surfaced, including one
that he hurled a vase in the direction of a secretary and attacked
a former assistant coach and the university's sports information
director.
In answering about 40 questions from the print reporters earlier
Tuesday, Knight said he can abide by the sanctions.
"I think I can live within any set of parameters, as long as my
mouth is not taped shut. I think you do have to be able to speak,"
Knight said, according to one of the reporters, Hubert Mizell of
The St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times.
"There are two reasons why I am now (still) the Indiana
basketball coach," Knight was quoted as saying. "No. 1 is the
players. They have been very supportive. No. 2 is the president,
who made a decision a lot of people did not agree with."
He said the scrutiny that will come with Brand's rigid policy
for behavior won't make him a different person, "but there can be
a different approach."
"I think my wife (Karen) is as good at anger management as
anyone I could imagine. She's got magnets hung up all over the
house that say, 'The horse is dead. Get off,' " he said.
University vice president Christopher Simpson said Knight
selected the reporters for Tuesday's session. An Associated Press
reporter who attempted to join the group for the interview in
Assembly Hall was ordered to leave.
"Coach Knight wanted to have a group of reporters both locally
and nationally that he felt had been relatively fair and objective
in their coverage," Simpson said. "Those are the ones he invited
to be with us today."
Simpson said Knight was not ordered by Brand or anyone else to
meet with the media.
"The president had asked him in his dealings with the media in
the future to handle them with decorum and civility," Simpson
said. "Based on what I just heard ... I think he's off to a
wonderful start. We can be nothing but optimistic."
The reporters who interviewed Knight were Mizell, Lynn Houser
and Mike Leonard of the Bloomington Herald-Times, Dave Kindred of
The Sporting News, William Gildea of The Washington Post, Ursula
Reel of the New York Post and Billy Reed of the Lexington (Ky.)
Herald-Leader.
Knight answered critics who thought he was kept at Indiana
because of his record, which includes three national championships
and 11 Big Ten titles with the Hoosiers. He is 661-240 at Indiana
and 763-290 overall, including six years at Army.
"I could care less if we won 500 games or 1,500 games or who
has won more games than we have," Knight said.
He said no one "has truly loved the game more than I have." | |
ALSO SEE
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Katz: Off-the-court behavior matters
Chat wrap: Phelps, Firestone on Knight
User reactions to Knight interview
Katz: Knight knows the rules
Bob Knight career timeline
AUDIO/VIDEO
 Indiana coach Bob Knight talks with ESPN's Roy Firestone and Digger Phelps.
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Bob Knight explains why he did not retire.
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 Indianapolis Star Columnist Bill Benner calls Bob Knight's interview a "performance."
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Dick Vitale says more media should have been present.
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Bob Knight answers a question about how the public views his sincerity.
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Bob Knight explains why he did not attend Indiana's news conference announcing sanctions against him.
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RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
Bob Knight hopes his sanctions were not based on wins and losses.
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Bob Knight says he will not disappoint his fans.
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