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Proud graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill. Used to be a sports writer for The Asheboro (NC) Courier-Tribune. I've also done some radio work in NC and Denver.More By BlueCarp
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The Last Dinosaur
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Dinosaurs once ruled the earth. Tyrannosaurus Rex. Stegosaurus. Velociraptors. Pterodactyls. Each was feared by lesser beings.
They ruled. They ruled the entire earth.
No longer.
Now, they are extinct. They could not adapt. And they died. All of them.
Dead.
Deader than door nails. Deader than rocks. Deader than Joe Piscopo’s career. Dead like a bag of hammers. Deader than Lazarus. (Lazarus was resurrected. Dinosaurs were not. And will not be.)
Dinosaurs were replaced. By new creatures. By different creatures.
By creatures with brains bigger than a peanut.
Which brings us to Robert Montgomery Knight. He, too, is a dinosaur. He too, and others like him, are extinct.
He has retired. Or, as those less kind would say, he has quit.
No matter how you describe it, Knight no longer roams the earth.
Now, he roams his living room. Maybe he roams northwest Texas, shooting birds flying over other people’s houses.
He no longer roams the basketball world.
His time is over. Like Woody Hayes. Like Bo Schembechler. Like Bear Bryant. Each was hugely successful. Each, like the T-Rex, was legendary. Each, like the T-Rex, is extinct.
The Cretaceous Period ended 65 million years ago.
The era of the Hard-Ass Coach ended yesterday.
It is called evolution. And it is necessary for advancement.
Good night, Knight.
