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Thursday, January 4, 2007
11:34:00 PM EST
I won't keep doing this, but tonight's topic on ESPN's "Top Five Reasons You Can't Blame..." features Bobby Knight and tries to make the case for why you can't blame him for his outbursts. "Top Five Reasons" doesn't really mean that you can't blame him for his outburts, at least not entirely. What they mean to suggest is that he should not be judged entirely by his outbursts.
As always, the show devotes the first ten minutes or so to reminding the audience why the subject of the show is treated with disdain in the first place - whether it's Bill Buckner for his error, Chris Webber for his timeout, Kobe for his strained relationship with Shaq or Knight for his bad acts. So, on tonight's show, those bad acts received a full airing.
OK, on to the top five reasons to give Knight a break, with brief commentary after each:
5) West Point's "culture of discipline turned Knight into a Martinet." I mentioned last night that the show often has to reach to find five reasons for whatever they're defending. Consider this a reach. And then some. The notion that West Point made Knight is ludicrous. Had he been a cadet there - perhaps a case could be made. But, Knight simply coached there. And, by all accounts, was a tough son-of-a-gun from his first day on campus. Silly.
4) "scared straight" - that Knight intimidates his players into going to class and staying out of a trouble. Knight has a great record in this regard, but as I've discussed before, other coaches have had similar success without the physical contact. Still, this is a point worth debating, at the least.
3) He wins. Fair enough. Though, again, other guys win without the shenanigans, and Knight's record over the past decade is not great.
2) Blame it on Indiana. They repeatedly indulged his temper, letting him getting away with murder because of his success on the court. After Knight won his third national championship in 1987 (a truly fabulous job of coaching with a very thin team), the athletic department turned over almost total control to of the program to Knight. This is a fair point, actually, and I would add that only after the Neil Reed choking incident circulated on videotape in 2000, and only in the wake of five seasons of less than stellar performances by his team leading up to 2000, did Indiana finally crack down. IU showed little spine or integrity in their handling of Knight.
1) "we love the show" - Knight's humor, bluster, and entertainment value keep us coming back for more. Hard to argue with this one.
OK - enough about Coach Knight.
As a follow-up to my Saban post, one more quick note on Nick Saban. Mike Francesa responded to an angry caller today - a Dolphins fan - by saying that, yes, Saban is liar, but he's not the first and won't be the last and that this is the nature of the business - coaches are going to keep moving, and they're going to keep misrepresenting their intentions. Francesa also chastised Dolphins' owner Wayne Huizenga - saying he never should have raided LSU to get Saban in the first place and that the recent turn of events represents Huzienga's come-uppance. Francesa's on target here.
One final note - I will write more about this in a future column - about Stephen A.s Quite Frankly. I know the show's ratings are weak, and other corners of the blogosphere are down on Stephen A. for his loud-mouthed shtick. And, he can be grating. But, Smith is doing something really interesting on his show. He has long made an issue of the under-representation of African Americans in sports journalism, and especially among the nation's sports opinion columnists. In light of that reality, he's decided to make his show a platform for what he considers to be some of the talented African American sports writers in America, making several of them regular commentators on his show. Rob Parker, Roy S. Johnson and the social commentator Earl Ofari Hutchinson are among the regulars who bring alot to the discussion. Furthermore, Smith is not afraid to call his panelists on their points of view. One consequence of his style is that the more simplistic formulations about race are typically challenged, making for an unusual phenonemon on mainstream television: African Americans debating one another about race (and other issues of social significance). As an aside, another Smith favorite is Steve Malzberg, a (white) right-wing talk radio host and contributor to the popular conservative website, Newsmax.com. Smith's commitment to a discussion in which everybody's point of view will be subjected to scrutiny is clear and impressive.
I have no inside information on ESPN's level of commitment to Quite Frankly, but there is no doubt that Smith is providing a forum for discussion - both in terms of content and, more significantly, participants - that is unique in major sports media.
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11:34:00 PM EST
More Top Five Reasons
I won't keep doing this, but tonight's topic on ESPN's "Top Five Reasons You Can't Blame..." features Bobby Knight and tries to make the case for why you can't blame him for his outbursts. "Top Five Reasons" doesn't really mean that you can't blame him for his outburts, at least not entirely. What they mean to suggest is that he should not be judged entirely by his outbursts.
As always, the show devotes the first ten minutes or so to reminding the audience why the subject of the show is treated with disdain in the first place - whether it's Bill Buckner for his error, Chris Webber for his timeout, Kobe for his strained relationship with Shaq or Knight for his bad acts. So, on tonight's show, those bad acts received a full airing.
OK, on to the top five reasons to give Knight a break, with brief commentary after each:
5) West Point's "culture of discipline turned Knight into a Martinet." I mentioned last night that the show often has to reach to find five reasons for whatever they're defending. Consider this a reach. And then some. The notion that West Point made Knight is ludicrous. Had he been a cadet there - perhaps a case could be made. But, Knight simply coached there. And, by all accounts, was a tough son-of-a-gun from his first day on campus. Silly.
4) "scared straight" - that Knight intimidates his players into going to class and staying out of a trouble. Knight has a great record in this regard, but as I've discussed before, other coaches have had similar success without the physical contact. Still, this is a point worth debating, at the least.
3) He wins. Fair enough. Though, again, other guys win without the shenanigans, and Knight's record over the past decade is not great.
2) Blame it on Indiana. They repeatedly indulged his temper, letting him getting away with murder because of his success on the court. After Knight won his third national championship in 1987 (a truly fabulous job of coaching with a very thin team), the athletic department turned over almost total control to of the program to Knight. This is a fair point, actually, and I would add that only after the Neil Reed choking incident circulated on videotape in 2000, and only in the wake of five seasons of less than stellar performances by his team leading up to 2000, did Indiana finally crack down. IU showed little spine or integrity in their handling of Knight.
1) "we love the show" - Knight's humor, bluster, and entertainment value keep us coming back for more. Hard to argue with this one.
OK - enough about Coach Knight.
As a follow-up to my Saban post, one more quick note on Nick Saban. Mike Francesa responded to an angry caller today - a Dolphins fan - by saying that, yes, Saban is liar, but he's not the first and won't be the last and that this is the nature of the business - coaches are going to keep moving, and they're going to keep misrepresenting their intentions. Francesa also chastised Dolphins' owner Wayne Huizenga - saying he never should have raided LSU to get Saban in the first place and that the recent turn of events represents Huzienga's come-uppance. Francesa's on target here.
One final note - I will write more about this in a future column - about Stephen A.s Quite Frankly. I know the show's ratings are weak, and other corners of the blogosphere are down on Stephen A. for his loud-mouthed shtick. And, he can be grating. But, Smith is doing something really interesting on his show. He has long made an issue of the under-representation of African Americans in sports journalism, and especially among the nation's sports opinion columnists. In light of that reality, he's decided to make his show a platform for what he considers to be some of the talented African American sports writers in America, making several of them regular commentators on his show. Rob Parker, Roy S. Johnson and the social commentator Earl Ofari Hutchinson are among the regulars who bring alot to the discussion. Furthermore, Smith is not afraid to call his panelists on their points of view. One consequence of his style is that the more simplistic formulations about race are typically challenged, making for an unusual phenonemon on mainstream television: African Americans debating one another about race (and other issues of social significance). As an aside, another Smith favorite is Steve Malzberg, a (white) right-wing talk radio host and contributor to the popular conservative website, Newsmax.com. Smith's commitment to a discussion in which everybody's point of view will be subjected to scrutiny is clear and impressive.
I have no inside information on ESPN's level of commitment to Quite Frankly, but there is no doubt that Smith is providing a forum for discussion - both in terms of content and, more significantly, participants - that is unique in major sports media.
Written by sportsmediaguy Blog about this entry |
Add to del.icio.us | digg this
