| | Associated Press
LOS ANGELES -- Fired Indiana University coach Bobby Knight said, "I'd be there in a heartbeat," if Isiah Thomas asks him to help coach the Indiana Pacers, but he'd prefer to stay in college coaching.
"If you want me to come in and spend two days with your team,
and you say you want me to work for these big guys, and I'll work
like heck with them," Knight said of working for a pro basketball team, during an hour-long interview on CNN's "Larry King Live" Wednesday night.
"I told Isiah, 'You tell me how I can help you,'" Knight said
of the new Indiana Pacer coach. Thomas played for Knight during the
glory basketball period of the university, which included three
national champions under Knight.
"I'd love to coach again. That's what I am. I'd like to coach
in college. I hope somewhere there's a program that wants to be
like ... and I can feel about it the same way I did in the first 24
years I was at Indiana," Knight said.
Knight said the last few years of 29 years at Indiana it became
inevitable to him he would be fired -- for accumulated incidents
over the years involving players and university personnel. During
the interview he disputed details of several of the alleged
incidents as related by others.
Knight said that when the university imposed a "zero
tolerance" policy on him concerning further incidents, in May of
this year, "I should have said, I don't need this." He was fired
earlier this month when he allegedly grabbed and berated a student
who addressed him as "Knight" instead of Mr. Knight or Coach
Knight.
Knight again disputed that he did anything wrong to Harvey,
citing a recent encounter at a movie theater in which a young man
wished him good luck and the coach responded by good-naturedly
grabbing the back of his neck.
"The definition of inappropriate physical contact is how it's
perceived by the person contacted," Knight said.
Knight criticized the way Indiana's administration,
particularly school president Myles Brand, handled his dismissal,
saying he should have left sooner.
"I'm disappointed that I stayed at Indiana for five years under
a president like Brand," Knight said.
Brand fired Knight on Sept. 10. Knight, as he did in an interview on ESPN two weeks ago, said terms of that
agreement weren't made clear.
The "zero-tolerance" policy was the result of an investigation
sparked by the release of a practice tape last spring that showed
Knight grabbing former Hoosiers guard Neil Reed by the neck.
Knight said school
administrators could have handled the situation in a less obtrusive
manner.
"All they had to do is say, 'We don't want you as a coach any
longer,' " he said. "Just tell me you don't want me here, and we
avoid a lot of stuff."
| |
ALSO SEE
Indiana lawyer to file suit questioning Knight's firing
|
