My favorite part of Indiana University's wrist slapping of Bob Knight came when trustee John Walda had the gall to say -- out loud -- that "there are no sacred cows at Indiana University and that certainly includes the basketball program."
No sacred cows, perhaps. But one untouchable bully.
It's the hypocrisy that's so humorous, yet so sad at the same time. Don't list all of the misdeeds Bob Knight did, from forcefully grabbing one player's neck in practice and head butting another in a game to fighting the Athletics Director and threatening the AD's secretary, tell me that you're not going to tolerate this kind of behavior, then turn right around and prove that you do by keeping Knight as coach.
If the winning and the other good he does for the school and the community are worth the baggage Knight brings, just come out and say so and get it over with.
Now IU President Myles Brand has put himself in a real spot. He's announced that Knight now must obey a code of conduct with zero tolerance for the outbursts for which Knight is equally famous and infamous. What happens when, not if but when, Knight blows up again?
I'll tell you what. Brand is going to look an even bigger slave to his basketball coach than he looks now. Because when Knight does throw the next of his patented tantrums, Brand will offer some lame explanation of how he's disappointed in his coach but that he can't see making a change during the season.
And soon enough the man who really rules the University, if not the entire state, of Indiana will be tolerated now matter how intolerable his behavior is.
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