The controversial legacy of Hall of Fame college basketball coach Bob Knight

Geoff Bennett:

Two major sports stories now, the death of a legendary basketball coach and the Texas Rangers' World Series win.

Our correspondent John Yang has more on both.

John Yang:

Geoff, as the Rangers won the franchise's first World Series last night, the sports world lost a complicated and polarizing figure, basketball coach Bobby Knight, known as much for his courtside tantrums as for his team's more than 900 wins and three NCAA national championships.

Kevin Blackistone is a journalism professor at the University of Maryland, an ESPN panelist and a sports commentator for The Washington Post.

Kevin, I think you covered — as I know, I think you covered Knight when he coached at Texas Tech.

Kevin Blackistone, The Washington Post:

Absolutely.

John Yang:

What are your thoughts? What do you remember about him today?

Kevin Blackistone:

Well, the first thing I remember is, he's the greatest coach I have ever been that close to in any sport, period.

I remember, when he got to Texas Tech, they were coming off a 9-19 season. They hadn't been successful in a couple of seasons. He came right in, put his imprint on the team. They went 23-9 and went straight to the NCAA Tournament. I remember he also altered the uniforms a little bit to look like the old Indiana Hoosiers, who — where he made his fame.

But he could put his imprint, his mark on a team just amazingly. And he ran this motion offense, which meant he didn't have to rely on any particular player to be a scorer. Everybody became a scorer. He ran a great defense. He was just a genius of a basketball coach. There's no question about it.

John Yang:

What made him so successful?

Kevin Blackistone:

I think his ability to make people believe in his system. And it had been so successful for so long, how could you say otherwise?

Remember, this is a guy who, in all of his years, racking up all those wins at Army and then for the longest at Indiana and then finally at Texas Tech, in all those years, he had one NBA All-Star player, and that was Isaiah Thomas. That's how good of a coach he was.

That season that he went 32-0, the other season right next to that, they went 31-1. So that's one loss in two straight seasons. He was just a tremendous motivator. Obviously, you could say he was a bully. And we know about that, but enough players hung around long enough and put up with his often-boorish behavior to make him a winner and to make themselves winners.

John Yang:

I want to talk a little bit about that behavior.

When he was at Texas Tech, we have a tape of him after a 2006 game when, as the Texas Tech athletic director said, Knight quickly lifted a player's chin. Let's take a listen to that.

Bobby Knight, Former Texas Tech Head Basketball Coach:

I have said nothing publicly about it, nor do I intend to. And that's the attention that it deserves.

Now, does anybody else have a question about basketball? This is a press conference for a basketball game.

John Yang:

What does that tell you about him?

Kevin Blackistone:

He ran the show. He also intimidated those of us in the media. He got his way with everyone and everybody.

Boorish behavior was something he saw in others. He never recognized his own. But I will tell you a story. When he got to Texas Tech, I got a call from his secretary. And she said: "Coach Knight wanted to talk to you."

And I said: "Sure, put him on."

I knew him a little bit. He got on and he said: "I just want to let you know I'm out here in Lubbock. And any time you want to come out and take in a practice, just let me know."

And I said: "Coach, I'd love to be able to do that, but your practices are closed to the media. And things have happened in your practice before that I would have to report. So I would have to violate your code of secrecy for your practices."

And he just said: "OK."

And we finished the conversation, and we both went on. He ran the roost. There's no question about it. And even when he was at Texas Tech, there's an infamous, kind of comical incident with him involving the chancellor of the university, who he chased down at a salad bar in a grocery store because he was angry about something that they — that he had perceived that the chancellor said about him.

So that's just the way he was. There's no apologizing for it. But that made him as much the coach off the floor as on the floor.

John Yang:

Commanding presence.

Let me — I want to turn to the World Series now.

Kevin Blackistone:

Of course.

John Yang:

Texas Rangers, first World Series in their franchise history, which goes back to being the Washington Senators. They — two years ago, they lost 102 games.

How did they turn this around so quickly?

Kevin Blackistone:

Wow, how did they do that? And, by the way, that's hope to everyone else in Major League Baseball that you can microwave a championship in just a couple of seasons.

They did it mainly with offense. This is one of the more prolific offenses that we have seen in Major League Baseball maybe in the last 10, 12 years. Number two, they did it by getting healthy at the right time of the year. They only won 90 games during the regular season, which is one of the lowest totals ever for a World Series championship.

But they had a lot of players banged up during the season, all of whom, it appeared, became healthy during the postseason and certainly during the World Series. So they were able to do that. They made the right moves at the trade deadline, getting Montgomery as a pitcher, who filled out their roster, their rotation fantastically.

And they believed in themselves. And they also were able to take advantage of this new postseason, which is expanded, and really which gives everybody an opportunity to kind of pull off the miracle win. So you think about what they did with the defending champions just down the highway from them, the Houston Astros, who they lost to during the regular season, but who they were able to sweep in the Astros' home park during the postseason in order to get as far as they got.

So they got everything right at the right time of the season.

John Yang:

What does it tell us about money, about the payroll? They had the ninth highest payroll in baseball, which is high, but there were still eight teams above them that didn't win the World Series.

Kevin Blackistone:

You can't necessarily buy a championship in baseball, if in any sport anymore, because of the way the seasons are, because of the way injuries crop up, and because the talent pool, I think, is a little bit deeper now.

So they didn't have to rely on high-paid talent from some other team. And some of the guys that they had really came to the fore, like Carter, who was a rookie who played very well, and, of course, Garcia, who became a postseason hero with the home runs that he was able to hit. He was a guy that they brought along, and he's a two-time All-Star, and he showed out during this World Series.

John Yang:

Kevin Blackistone covering the horizon on sports for us tonight, thank you very much.

Kevin Blackistone:

Thank you, John.