What’s the best way to remember Bob Knight, the good and the bad?

Legendary college basketball coach Bob Knight passed away on Wednesday and John Feinstein joined The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz to have an honest discussion about the legendary coach had no shortage of detractors off the court.

Feinstein wrote the seminal book A Season on the Brink about the 1985-86 Indiana Hoosiers, being granted unprecedented access to the team and Knight. In his column for The Washington Post, Feinstein points out that even after the success of the book, and perhaps because of things revealed in it, Knight didn’t talk to him for eight years and even after Knight “forgave” Feinstein they maintained what Feinstein termed a “distant though cordial relationship for the rest of his life.”

Joining the show via the phone in an old-school radio type of way, Chris Cote immediately got right into the heart of the matter and asked if Knight was a racist. Feinstein said no, but noted that Knight liked to make jokes about blacks, Jews, women and Hispanics to people he knew. Feinstein said Knight always wanted to shock and it had very little to do with disliking blacks or Jews, for instance, although maybe it did have something to do with disliking women as Feinstein says he was certainly a misogynist. But that was Bob, he said.

When addressing whether he would be pulling any punches, which Chris had said earlier in the show that he might, Feinstein directs him to his column in the Post, noting that normally it would have been called an appreciation, which would have been inaccurate in this instance.

Dan asks Feinstein how he correctly eulogizes Knight as someone who was impacted by his life and wrote about him prodigiously and honestly. Dan says he certainly had an anger problem at the very least, and Feinstein agreed, no question. Feinstein notes that he’s no psychiatrist, but he thinks Knight’s larger problem was that he always had to have the last word. And that was regardless of the issue or the company, including college administrators and his bosses. Feinstein notes that Knight held a grudge against Myles Brand long after Brand had died, to the point where he wouldn’t return to Indiana for years, including for the 40th anniversary of the school’s undefeated 1976 championship team. Although he did eventually return to Indiana in 2020.

Feinstein says he will be forever grateful to Knight for the access he granted for the book, even if Knight wound up attacking Feinstein for years because he said Feinstein was supposed to leave his profanity out of the book, which the author says is the most ridiculous thing he’s ever heard.

So Dan wants to know, what is the proper way to be respectful to the late Knight and to understand what this man meant to a region of the United States while also acknowledging his flaws?

Feinstein admits that Knight was a bully, that he was a pathological liar to the point of believing his own lies. But, Feinstein points out that he was also one of the great college coaches of all time and as he said at the end of his Post column, he touched a lot of lives. And, Feinstein says, a majority were for the positive. But there were many lives he touched not for the good, Feinstein said, including people he bullied, people he turned against. Feinstein reiterated a story he told in the column linked above about stealing Calbert Chaney from one his former players, Jim Crews who then coached at Evansville, concluding with the statement that Knight treated his enemies better than he treated his friends, which Feinstein said was sadly often true. Which inevitably led to some hard feelings, including people he was formerly close to like Mike Krzyzewski.

In the end, Feinstein says Knight spent a good portion of his life trying to prove that he was a bigger star than his Ohio State teammates Jerry Lucas, John Havlicek and Mel Nowell and that may have played a role in some of his flaws.

Elsewhere in the show, Amin tried to tell a story but Dan simply got in the way …

SHOW BREAKDOWN

Local Hour: Dan Blew The Joke

• After last night’s Heat collapse against the Brooklyn Nets, Mike Ryan is being driven mad. Amin Elhassan is here to begin our analysis before Mike and Jeremy get into it over Miami’s roster and performance as Dan asks Tony and Chris about the different kinds of Heat fandom. Then, the crew discuss Chris Cote’s upcoming trip to Germany to cover the Miami Dolphins. Plus, we take a look back at the foot in Chris Cote’s bathroom stall and begin to eulogize Bobby Knight in the best way we can.

The Big Suey: YEAR HE! YEAR HE!

• It’s time to discuss the University of Miami and Tyler Van Dyke’s continued struggles before Dan and Mike sing the praises of Rueben “Hurricane” Bain, the 6-star . Then, Jeremiah Tachington III continues his reign as the show presents Thursday Thunder, and limited fake Joe Zagacki is here to be honest about Bobby Knight’s “complicated” legacy. Plus, the World Series ended last night, huh?

Hour 1: Pathological Liar

• Movie critic Adnan Virk and former baseball president David Samson join the show to tease a Top 5 before breaking down the now-over World Series. Then, John Feinstein joins us and doesn’t hold back on Bobby Knight. Plus, Mike Schur is here to defend the Heat, deliver multiple stats of the day, and grace us with a new Top 5.

Hour 2: Rules for Red Eye Flights

• Liam Neeson has a new movie coming out and the crew is PUMPED about the name. Then, the Saudis are getting away with sportswashing, we hear the Useless Sound Montage, and we learn about our new favorite sports owner: John Textor. Plus, the Connor Stallions story has continued to evolve, we recap the Polls, and we dive into the rules for red eye flights.

Postgame Show: Manual Cars

• Chris Cote has a question: What happened to manual cars? Chris, Tony, Mike and Jeremy discuss cars, bikes, magic, and more.

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