By
Ryan Finley
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Ever been to Indiana? I have.
All it takes is one trip to the Hoosier State to discover the importance of "the General," Robert Montgomery Knight, to Indiana University and to the state as a whole.
Aside from Larry Bird, "the hick from French Lick," Coach Knight is the most recognizable figure in the history of the state of Indiana.
Sunday's firing marked an unceremonious end to a hall-of-fame career.
Why? Because one kid, the step-son of Knight's biggest critic, pissed him off.
Not to say that Knight, who is notorious for his short fuse, shouldn't have been reprimanded, but there is no way on Earth that Knight, the biggest personality in the game today, should have been fired.
Knight was the last man standing from a generation of "manly men" that included John Wayne, Ted Williams and Johnny Cash. Some thought they were jerks; others thought they were geniuses.
Knight was definitely both.
He was the anti-Steve Lavin. He was the anti-Rick Pitino. "The General" was never seen in Armani suits or talking to boosters. His hair was never Lute Olson-perfect. He didn't give a damn what journalists or television reporters said.
All Knight cared about was winning and graduating his players.
Is that such a crime?
His players loved him. All you needed to do was look at Indiana's returning players on the night he was fired. They were crying and threatening to leave the school if his assistants weren't retained as IU's interim head coach.
Simply, Coach Knight was good at what he did. But, in the age of the slick-haired, fast-talking coaches, winning was no longer good enough. This is the 21st century - coaches have to be public-relations machines for the university.
Knight wore the same sweater game after game, refused to kiss up to administrators and cursed at reporters.
He was fired because he wouldn't shake hands and kiss butts and become a whore for Indiana University, which will never be known as anything more than a basketball school.
But, after the interim coach has been fired at the end of the 2000-2001 season, the Indiana administrators will bring in a new coach.
Steve Alford, the slick-haired, fast talking coach at Iowa, is the early front-runner to replace "the General."
In Alford, Indiana University would finally get what it wanted all along - a man that they can market as young, fresh and proactive.
Alford, on his best day, isn't fit to clean out Bob Knight's whistle. Knight was a genius in our midst, a sort of renegade cowboy who refused to bend over for the university.
Steve Lavin and Rick Pitino, in their Armani suits and slicked hair, are the coaches of the future. Knight clearly isn't.
So congratulations, IU President Myles Brand. You killed John Wayne.
