Kentucky Sports Radio
[Moderated by Matt Jones, Drew Franklin and Tyler Thompson]
[Moderated by Matt Jones, Drew Franklin and Tyler Thompson]
It shouldn’t really come as any surprise that Bob Knight would go off and say something stupid and inflammatory. It’s been repeated over and over since his most recent comments surfaced, yesterday: That’s just who Bob Knight is. He doesn’t pull any punches, he calls it like he sees it, he’s not going to let anyone censor him, blah blah blah. Bob Knight’s idiocy isn’t the problem at hand and it never was. He’s a bitter old man without a filter and that’s not up for debate. He could have coached his last years at Texas Tech, retired as the all-time wins leader in Division I college basketball and rode off into the sunset until he had to come back and say a few words when Coach K passed his wins mark. That’s not what happened though.
Instead, upon his retirement, ESPN offered him a job as a college basketball analyst. Every contentious thing he has said since 2008 is the fault of ESPN, and they have yet to embrace that responsibility. By hiring him as an expert on college basketball, ESPN validated his opinions, all of his opinions. Knight was no longer a coach, but a newly minted member of the sports media. However, he seems to exist outside of the realm of ESPN reprimand. He talks with obvious preference for certain coaches and teams and refuses to hold himself to the same level of integrity and professionalism that his peers, like Jay Bilas and Dick Vitale, do. Knight even makes Digger Phelps look like a reasonable and unbiased analyst.
At this point, a simple slap on the wrist by ESPN won’t suffice. The story is now national news and something big has to be done to show Bob Knight that being ‘blatantly erroneous’ isn’t appropriate when you speak with the authority of a news group that calls itself ‘The Worldwide Leader in Sports’. There are certainly levels of journalistic integrity that must always be upheld and getting the facts right is about as crucially basic as it can get. We know that and ESPN certainly knows that.
There needs to be a punishment to go along with the lackluster statement of innocence that they tried to pass off as an apology from Knight. He never acknowledged what he said was incorrect, he only noted that he shouldn’t have said it about Kentucky. That’s not good enough for me and it shouldn’t be good enough for ESPN.
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Bill Keightley Report : Never to be forgotten.
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April 19th, 2011 at 9:33 pm
Where can I sign up?
April 19th, 2011 at 9:36 pm
Bob Knight is a reflection of ESPN. Remember ESPN is the network that employs Jamele Hill.
Dick Vitale is no better than Bob Knight. Vitale is a two face scum bag that says what ever Rick Pitino
wants him to say.
April 19th, 2011 at 9:36 pm
Amen brother! However I hope they keep him on the air so he can continue to make an ass of himself!!
April 19th, 2011 at 9:36 pm
do you really think that all this publicity (not that ESPN needs publicity) is helping the cause? it’s instances like these that give waaaayy too much credibility to a senile old has-been. let it go man. we all need to just let it go. let bob live to his old retched age and die a lonely bitter-sweet individual. it’s obvious he doesn’t care what ESPN says so why should he care what a fan-blog from Kentucky says. too much effort and coverage has been given to ol’ bobby. let it go man
April 19th, 2011 at 9:37 pm
That is an apology? Yeah, right….and Easter eggs really do come from the Easter Bunny.
April 19th, 2011 at 9:37 pm
Hear, hear.
April 19th, 2011 at 9:38 pm
I dont think ESPN or the NCAA give to Easter Eggs about Uk!
April 19th, 2011 at 9:38 pm
I for one appreciate Coach Knight for doing the right thing and appologizing for his statement, even though ESPN made him do so. Thank You.
Now……..Hug a root!
April 19th, 2011 at 9:39 pm
So you are saying ESPN is responsible for what Bob Knight said at a non-ESPN affiliated banquet but John Calipari has zero responsibility for two vacated Final Fours while being the head coach?
Makes perfect sense.
Cue the ‘Morehead’ comments in 3…2….1….
Originality at it’s finest.
April 19th, 2011 at 9:40 pm
ESPN is in the position of a monopoly on sports reporting to the masses. If they don’t want to apologize for anything what are we going to do? It’s not like we can shop elsewhere. Bobby is a moron and ESPN knows we will still tune in. They aren’t in the market of being journalists, they are putting on a TV show.
April 19th, 2011 at 9:41 pm
He never addressed the slanderous nature of his factually inaccurate comments about class attendance, thereby infering the University, the program, and the players are all corrupt.
Hey Bob, do you think egotistical, arrogant, bullying assholes are good for college baskeball? Notice I did not make that personal or direct it at any particular individual.
April 19th, 2011 at 9:41 pm
Well written.
April 19th, 2011 at 9:42 pm
Hey #9, are you saying that Pitino has no responsibility to the UL fanbase, because what happened at Porcini’s was off of UL’s campus? Troll.
April 19th, 2011 at 9:43 pm
The real sad thing is that Knight’s “apology” did not include the correct facts about the five UK starters’ academic records. I call it a left handed apology (no offense to those who are left handed). In fact, the way the apology was worded allows those who choose to believe Knight’s original statement the leeway to say that what Knight said was true but he just can’t prove it. He is a belligerent overbearing @ss who cannot stand to be corrected or challenged. ESPN is too good at what they do to continue with him on thier staff.
April 19th, 2011 at 9:44 pm
9… ok, here go’s.. MOREHEAD.
April 19th, 2011 at 9:44 pm
Hey Doo Doo, no more responsibility than an institution’s coach at a non-University eating establishment banging some skank on table top. Should the University share any responsibility for that?
April 19th, 2011 at 9:45 pm
Dip Vitale in some oil, I think he has mange from the looks of that picture. FU Bobby Knight
April 19th, 2011 at 9:46 pm
Now we’ll never hear from UL Butter again…The end.
April 19th, 2011 at 9:48 pm
#9 – Peyton Siva is better than John Wall. Siva just loves the crappy downtown campus and losing to UK so much, he can’t leave.
April 19th, 2011 at 9:48 pm
#9, it’s still funny as hell after all this time. MOREHEAD.
April 19th, 2011 at 9:48 pm
Hall of Famer Dick Weiss of the New York Daily News is reporting that all of the Big Blue Nation will know Brandon Knight, Terrence Jones, and DeAndre Liggins’ decisions tomorrow.
This from Weiss’ twitter account:
NYDNDickWeiss 9:30pm via web
uk stars brandon knight, t jones, d liggins reportedly will announce decisions on whether to turn pro wed
April 19th, 2011 at 9:49 pm
dear god look vitales hair
April 19th, 2011 at 9:50 pm
No don’t let it go. Sick and damn tired that the biased “experts” are allowed to give their opinion on anything. Bob hates UK. OH FREAKING WELL!!! I couldn’t care any less about his ass, but to give a statement and not say sorry for LYING about those kids is total BULLSHIT. Now I have moved on to ESPN. To let him get by with it without a punishment is hilarious. He gets on tv and goes on and on about his butt buddies Coach K and Bill Self like they do no wrong. He wouldn’t even say the word Kentucky on air last year when they did promos about upcoming games. Should just hire me and I will give opinions on people and teams even though I am a UK fan. Thank goodness we get guys like Jay, he is all class and non biased.
April 19th, 2011 at 9:50 pm
I hate that people say, “Oh thats just Bobby… You got to understand how he is… Thats just Bobby, being Bobby.” It is not OK to just say, and do, what you want just because “You are Bobby”…
It’s time he was held to the standards of society and good manners.
It won’t happen, Maybe Howard Cosell, Ron Franklin, Ben Wright, and Jimmy the Greek couldn’t last with their comments but “BOBBY” is untouchable.
April 19th, 2011 at 9:53 pm
9. And ur coach killed a baby. DAGGA
April 19th, 2011 at 9:55 pm
Here’s the worthless ESPN segment on YouTube.
http://youtu.be/hAYIA238NB4
April 19th, 2011 at 9:55 pm
I think my name says it all. Doo Doo Butter? Please….
April 19th, 2011 at 9:56 pm
#20 – Well said
#23 – ESPN knows that we won’t skip a UK game, especially on ESPN. It’s bullsh*t.
April 19th, 2011 at 9:57 pm
Why oh why do all of you act like negative comments about UK Basketball cause national outrage? They don’t. Nobody outside of Kentucky or it’s fanbase gives a damn what Bob Knight says about UK. Whether true or untrue, they don’t care. UK is only important in Kentucky, duh.
April 19th, 2011 at 9:58 pm
#9 – I always thought ‘Da Ville’ referred to the two towns in which I grew up…Taylorsville and Shepherdsville. You mean there’s another one?
April 19th, 2011 at 10:00 pm
29 forgot that only UL’s fanbase was stuck in a small geographic area…The area is the size of Porcini’s Restaurant. Coincidence?
April 19th, 2011 at 10:07 pm
#9why do u come on here, I just want to know why
April 19th, 2011 at 10:11 pm
29 you suck
April 19th, 2011 at 10:24 pm
Good post Matthew. ESPN deserves a lot of comeuppance and you’re delivering it. Keep the heat on.
April 19th, 2011 at 10:28 pm
Knight has a right to say what he thinks, and nothing should stop that. This comment was yet another in a long line of stupid comments. LONG line. He was a good coach at one point, right now he just seems like a bitter old bastard that needs to fade.
I used to really like him, and valid his opinions. I could be wrong, but I think their was a bit of support for him having a coaching job at UK (If my foggy memory is correct it was around the time Sutton was hired) Anymore, he’s just a damn joke and should be ran out on a rail. I can remember the chair throwing, I can remember him taking off his watch and throwing it once as well. I remember reading a story about him getting into it with the dean of texas tech. Alot of this is ancient history to most younger guys, but I remember most of it happening. guy is an insult to any good coach.
I wish he would just fade away, or more importantly just shut his gob.
check out his wiki page, so many screwed up things http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Knight
April 19th, 2011 at 10:28 pm
Until i see a video of an apology,it never happened! This is just ESPN covering their behinds.
April 20th, 2011 at 8:24 am
knight certainly doesn’t hold himself to the same high standards that he held the media to when he was coaching.
April 20th, 2011 at 8:26 am
look at the hair on dicks head. lookin rough buddy.
April 20th, 2011 at 8:46 am
In the last couple of years, there has been several instances where a reporter or commentator lost his job for desparaging remarks aimed towards minorites or racist or gender inuendos. I believe BBN should demand Bobby Knight’s departure from ESPN as this is a much more flagrant foul ( as in foul mouth)