Great coach, deplorable human being

This was a nice compromise.

Bobby Knight was still coaching, which provided college basketball with a compelling cartoon character.

But he was what seemed like light years away in Lubbock, Texas, so Midwesterners didn't have to endure his boorishness on a regular basis.

Once Knight left Indiana and the Big Ten, winding up at Texas Tech and the Big 12, distance made him almost bearable.

So it also was almost sad -- though not quite -- to hear Monday night that the fabled Gen. Robert Montgomery Knight resigned as the Red Raiders' head coach.

Knight has maintained that coaching milestones mean little to him, but I wonder whether he would have quit with 899 victories instead of 902.

Or would Knight have left if he and Texas Tech were 18-2 instead of 12-8 and national contenders instead of afterthoughts?

To me, Knight always did what was best for him, and if it happened to benefit a player or a team or a school, well that was OK, too.

Anyway, the undisciplined disciplinarian's decorated career appears over unless he decides to reincarnate himself as, say, the Bulls' head coach.

My goodness, could you imagine Bobby Knight coaching in the NBA? He would make Scott Skiles look like Barbie von Bambi.

I spent some time around Knight during his Indiana days -- at Hoosiers games, at Big Ten media days, at NCAA Tournament time.

Legions of fans adore him, but place me in the category that never found the guy endearing on any level.

I have seen Knight embarrass a blind radio reporter, take inappropriate shots of defiance at authority figures, and act the fool being nasty to players, referees and media members.

There are stories about how Knight even tried to intimidate college newspaper reporters for unflattering things they wrote.

No one could be safe from his wrath. To me it all adds up to a great coach being a deplorable human being.

No wonder Knight and Patriots coach Bill Belichick are friends. It's a case of different sports and different eras, same person and personality.

In fact, that might be a good example of the worst impact Knight had on his profession.

It was OK that there was a Bobby Knight. The problem was that he became a role model for younger coaches who felt they could get away with his brand of leadership.

The way Knight treated players at Indiana, and the three national championships it produced, created a whole generation of dictatorial basketball coaches.

They thought they could treat big, strong-willed athletes as if they were small, weak-minded children.

Youth coaches began coaching like that. High school coaches did. College coaches did. Even some pro coaches did.

Most failed because few had Knight's ability and intellect. They yelled, screamed, pushed and shoved themselves right out of jobs.

My final memory of Knight will be this: At the on-court ceremony following his 900th victory, he couldn't resist berating Texas Tech fans for not attending games often enough for his pleasing.

Knight just couldn't give in to happiness and allow others to be happy for him.

Overall, his approach was especially unfortunate because if he weren't so polarizing, he could have helped clean up a corrupt college-basketball system.

Oh, well, at least by the time Bobby Knight quit Monday, geography made it possible to say goodbye instead of good riddance.