Bob Knight memories...

The General ran hot and cold with media members. I was one of them, and believe me, it was frigid. Some memories of a layered, complex basketball genius on his passing...

The first time I sat down and conversed with Bob Knight, he was naked.

I mean: BUCK. ASS. NAKED.

It was 1979, I was a sophomore working for the school newspaper, the Indiana Daily Student, and I had just been put on the basketball beat. Exciting, of course, but a little intimidating, too. For years, I had heard about the boorish side of Bob Knight, especially when it came to his dealings with reporters, so I was a little skittish when the sports information director told me and another reporter, Dan Barreiro, then with the Louisville Courier-Journal, to wait for Knight in his office.

After a couple of minutes, he emerged. He’d just showered. He was completely naked. And he seemed totally disinterested in the idea of putting on some clothes.

He plopped down in an oversized red leather chair and said, “OK, what do YOU want?”

I told him I was here to introduce myself, and I wanted to gently make the case that the student newspaper had as much right to attend practices as folks like Bob Hammel, then with the Bloomington Herald-Telephone.

We talked and he scratched. Seriously, he just kept scratching – down there, let’s just say. It was as if me and Barreiro weren’t even there. Was he trying to throw me off my game, intimidate me? I assumed so.