Finito

It may or may not surprise y'all that I'm a fan of Bob Knight -- he's a right bastard, I know (and I have Major Deep Issues with his politics, as I do with all people who think that living an upright life is the sole property of the Republican Party), but he's a king-hell basketball coach and an undeniable force of nature. Plus, as a person with somewhat of a temper myself, and a low tolerance for jackassery not my own, I often side with the man on his, ah, interpersonal conflicts. He's fuckin hilarious, y'all!

In pure basketball terms, I used to love watching him with Indiana, and I have loved watching him take all the nobodies and also-rans who can be persuaded to go into what this writer charitably calls the "minimal tradition" of the basketball program at Texas Tech, and bring them into the friggin NCAA tournament a handful of times since 2001.

Plus, as the article linked above points out, Knight has done it all without cheating. Think about it: completely clean hands after more than four decades in the increasingly sordid and corrupt world of college basketball. He has 902 wins, and a near-100% graduation rate for his players in all that time -- he really, sincerely gives a fuck about making sure those kids are equipped to handle life once they're out from under his thumb.

So I'm sorry to see him go (and frankly, I wonder what he thinks he's going to do with himself as a retiree), but I also think it's perfect the way he did it -- no fanfare, no nothing, just claps twice, shows the eye in the sky there's nothing in his hands or up his sleeves, and turns his shift over to the next guy. Good work, Coach.