Column: It's up to Knight to make the happy ending

When I think of former IU Coach Bobby Knight’s non-existent relationship with the University, I’m reminded of Hollywood.

The directors, producers and screenwriters within the film capital of the world make exhaustive efforts to craft scripts that will, ultimately, produce the happy, satisfying endings audiences clamor for.

Thus, it’s good a film centering on Knight and IU hasn’t been produced to date. There hasn’t been resolution between the two, and I’m not sure there will ever be.

Those same audiences and viewers would despise the ending of said film, demanding their money back — and rightfully so. I know I would do the same.

That doesn’t mean a reunion between the two isn’t possible, though I understand Knight’s stubborn attitude concerning a homecoming of sorts to IU or even publicly discussing the University or its basketball program.

Former IU President Myles Brand, who dismissed Knight Sept. 10, 2000, is often thought to have used the opportunity to jettison Knight as a power move to stake his claim as the leading candidate for the NCAA Presidency, a position he assumed in 2002.

Even if you disagree with that stance on Brand, understanding — and perhaps sympathizing with — Knight’s thought process and reaction following his dismissal isn’t difficult.

The 72-year-old, whose contract with ESPN expired following the last college basketball season, felt as if he had been wronged, as if he had been made an
example.

And no one — not a single person — does that to Knight.

Brand died Sept. 16, 2009. Since then, Knight has expressed his feelings about the man.

Andrew Goldman of the New York Times captured Knight’s feelings about Brand during an interview earlier this year.

“I didn’t like the guy,” Knight told Goldman. “In fact, the first time I ever did anything with him, I said, ‘This guy will be a problem for a lot of people here.’ I felt that way when he was alive, and I felt that way when he was dead — and never wasted any time on it.”

He said he has always thought in that manner. It has been an influential part of his personality ever since he began his coaching career at Army, where he coached current no-nonsense Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski from 1965 to 1969.

If you watch Krzyzewski coach a game, it’s almost as if you’re watching Knight himself pace the hardwood.

That’s the type of influence Knight had.

While Knight won’t change — I hope he doesn’t, for it gives him such legendary presence — it’s time he accepts the numerous invitations to return to the school where he won three NCAA Tournament Championships.

The late Brand, a man who Knight so vehemently despises, was last at IU serving as president in 2002.

That was 11 years ago. It was a different time.
 
Even current IU Coach Tom Crean has reached out.

“I would hope Bob Knight knows he has a 365-day invitation to come back,” Crean told CBSSports.com’s Matt Norlander in October 2011. “For him to come back, that’s totally up to him. I wouldn’t hesitate in welcoming him back — there’s no question about that. And if we knew he was coming back, I’d be running out there opening the doors.”

Knight has had his own issues with the IU administration, but like Crean, there’s an entire student population, alumni base and college basketball environment begging him to return.

It’s up to Knight to provide a happy ending.

­— ckillore@indiana.edu
Follow columnist Connor Killoren on Twitter @IDS_CGKilloren.