Bob Knight (Mr. 880): the best of all time?
| 8
|
by user Fangini
The question was posed this morning on cold pizza. Would you rather have Bob Knight or Dean Smith claim stake to the title of best ncaa coach in basketball history. The answer is simple and clear.
While Bob Knight is a tremendous x's and o's coach he coached all of his teams in dictatorship style. Knight insisted on recruiting a certain type of player that would run through a wall for him as opposed to obtaining the top recruits that North Carolina would obtain year after year. The point is Knight did not go after the Jordan's, Stackhouse, Wallace, Carter, Worthy type of player. Knight did not want to deal with the ups and downs of moody college superstars. Knight wants the type of old school player that simply says yes sir, no sir, right away sir, how do you like your burger cooked sir. In other words, Knight is and always has been a great coach who could not adapt to the modern day player.
On the other hand, Dean Smith has been able to prove over his tenure of coaching that he was not only a great strategist on the chalkboard but he also had the ability to adapt to the modern player over the course of time. He was very good at developing the comraderie and relationships with the new age player that coach Knight was unable to do. There is no question that if you were to place Dean Smith in the head coaching positions that Bob Knight has had over his career that Dean Smith would certainly produce the same results as Knight. However, can the same be said if you were to place Coach Knight into Dean Smith's shoes. On the contrary you probably would have seen Rasheed Wallace go mano-e-mano with Knight time after time. You think good ole Stackhouse wouldve listened to that old school coach? I think not
Bob Knight is a great coach, but Dean Smith gets my vote.
Visit www.fangini.blogspot.com - ask the great fangini all your personal fantasy questions at fangini@yahoo.com or IM him on aol: thegreatfangini
Knight - Mike Kryshewuioowgiwhbgwifiqwfhwuioski, Isiah Thomas (tee hee)
Smith - Roy Williams, Larry Brown, Matt Dougherty... d'oh!