Click Now to Order

REAPING

In the ultimate of ironies, Indiana basketball coach Bob Knight was fired after an altercation with a 19-year-old freshman. The student addressed the coach as, "Knight," not Mr. Knight, or Coach Knight.

Knight grabbed the student by the arm and demanded the student show him respect. Yet that is exactly what the legendary coach failed to show his own superiors. In a news conference, IU President Myles Brand outlined Knight's behavior saying Knight had been defiant and hostile since May 15 when Brand issued sanctions against Knight. Brand cited examples of his behavior by making offensive remarks about the president and the board of trustees, failing to rekindle a relationship, or at the very least talk to, athletics director Clarence Doninger, refusing to attend IU tipoff alumni functions and a verbal outburst against a female IU administrator.

"It was coming to a head and it would have come to a head this week," IU board of trustee Stephen Backer told ESPN.com Sunday night after Brand fired Knight. "Everyone was starting to hear about how he was treating his employer and the university. You just don't do that."

The General, as he is known in Indiana, reaped what he has sown.

—ESPN.com, Monday, September 11, 2000. Illustration by Jim L. Wilson

Galatians 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.