My Two Cents: Indiana Players' Common Thread on Bob Knight? 'He Taught Me To Be a Man'

Bob Knight's passing, as expected, hit many of his Indiana players hard on Wednesday, and it stirred up many wonderful memories. Dean Garrett, the center on Knight's last championship team in 1987, said Knight ''taught me to be a man'' and was a friend and mentor forever.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — The question, Dean Garrett said, seemed almost unfair. The former center on Indiana's last national championship team in 1987 was having a hard time picking the one thing he learned from Bob Knight that was the most important.

"There are so many things. So many,'' Garrett said by phone on Wednesday night from his home in Las Vegas just hours after Knight had passed away peacefully in Bloomington at age 83. ''Picking just one thing, that's really hard.''

The line went silent for a moment or two and then, his voice crackling, Garrett had the answer.

"I guess the most important thing, the one thing that really stands out, is that he taught me how to be a man,'' Garrett said. "When I first got to him in Bloomington, I was like 19-20 years old, and coming from a junior college. He taught me how to be a man, and all of what that means. 

"And you know what's funny. All of us from that team, we're all brothers and we'd all say that. Yeah, he was a great basketball coach, but he cared most about us as people, especially after we were done playing. He genuinely cared. When you called, he always picked up the phone. We were never ex-players. We were all always his players. And he was always 'Coach.' None of us have ever called him Bob or Mr. Knight. He's always just been 'Coach,' even after all these years.

His voice went silent again as Garrett choked up.

''And he'll always be 'Coach,' '' he said.

Garrett learned of Knight's passing through a text chain that many of the players from that 1987 title team are on. That was Knight's third — and last — championship team.

"I talked to Pat (Knight, Bob's son) last week and I knew what was going on, and Steve (Alford, the star of that '87 team who coaches at Nevada) texted us that it wasn't looking good, and that he wasn't going to make it,'' Garrett said. "We've all been texting. It was coach who brought us all together back then and we've been brothers ever since.

"And Steve, a little while ago, he was the one who said we all really need to get together this spring. I think it was Steve's way of saying that life's too short, and we need to see each other more. He's definitely right about that.''

Bob Knight had 29 Indiana teams, and these bonds are all real. Much as it is with Garrett and Alford and Keith Smart and others in '87, it's the same with Quinn Buckner and Scott May and the guys from 1976, and Isiah Thomas and his mates from the 1981 title team. 

Current Indiana coach Mike Woodson, Thomas and Randy Wittman were teammates in 1980, and all had a huge imprint on Knight's return in 2020. That group, they feel it, too.

"Lots of teammate tears flowing tonight for our coach,'' Thomas said on Twitter.

“He influenced my life in ways I could never repay,'' said Woodson. "His record as a basketball coach speaks for itself. He will be remembered as one of the greatest ever and his impact on the game of basketball is etched in stone. I will always cherish the time we spent together after I played for him. His fierce loyalty to his former players never wavered. I am grateful that he was able to come to our practices after I came back (to coach at Indiana). His presence meant so much to me, our staff, and our players.” 

Garrett admitted that it was hard to play for Knight, because he demanded the most out of you. But with all the work came rewards, and for his group, it was a national title. But that closeness to their coach never went away.

That's why the reunion in 2020 was so important. It healed all the wounds, and brought the entire Indiana basketball community back together again.

"I think that day in 2020 was the most important day in Indiana basketball history,'' Garrett said. "Bigger than our championship, all the other titles, because coach Knight was back and a lot of us were all back there with him. Indiana basketball was back that day. I was so happy, proud and profoundly humbled to be a part of that day.

"That day means so much to me, especially now because it was the last time I saw him in person. I talked to him last year on his birthday, and Steve had told me he was starting to struggle. But he knew who I was and he was telling me stories about my mom and asking me how I was doing, all of it. It was a great chat. I'll never forget it''

Last week, Woodson reminded us that ''Bob Knight is Indiana basketball.''

He was so right. And he will be missed — so much.

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