Former Indiana player and coach calls Bob Knight a 'miserable human being' and says he has 'lost respect for him'
ESPN analyst Dan Dakich went all in on former Indiana University head coach Bob Knight over some of his recent actions and comments.
Dakich played under Knight at Indiana in the early 1980s and later was an assistant coach for the Hall of Famer for 12 seasons.
On Thursday, just as the NCAA Tournament was starting, Indiana fired their most recent head coach, Tom Crean. Dakich took to that move as an opportunity to take a shot at Knight, noting that he would be happy that the program is in turmoil, calling him a "miserable human being."
On Friday, Dakich was on ESPN Radio's "Mike & Mike" and was asked about the comment, saying he had lost all respect for Knight when he failed to show up to a reunion for the 1976 undefeated national championship team and how that showed Knight's own teachings were "crap."
"I lost respect for him when he didn't come back for his 1976 championship team. These guys made him. Let's be honest. Guys on the east coast knew who Bob Knight was back in the 70s. Nobody in the midwest knew Bob Knight. They knew he played on Ohio State's national championship team ... [The championship team] had a recognition, a celebration and he chooses not to come out. I'm like, 'Wait a second, these guys made you.' It made me think, look, Indiana was always about 'us,' the team. Coach Knight was great. He never said 'I,' he always said 'We' when he talked. But he made me think, 'wait a second, that's all crap' ... It's really about him and his feelings."
Knight was back in the news recently when he told "The Dan Patrick Show" that he would never return to the school and that he hopes the school leaders "are all dead."
"He just said the other day on another show that he wanted everybody that fired him dead, which is awful," Dakich said. "The fact of the matter is, two of them are and they have families. I'm done [with Knight]."
Later, while discussing the future of the Indiana basketball team, Dakich again criticized Knight, suggesting he quit trying seven years before the school fired him.
"Indiana, the state, has not been recruited well since 1993," Dakich said. "I could not, as an assistant, get Coach Knight to skip the Millie Schembechler Michigan Golf Outing practice round to spend the day with the best big guy in the country named Raef Lafrentz who was on our campus. I couldn't get coach Knight to take one flight to go see Jacque Vaughn, who loved Indiana."
It is easy to not like Knight from afar. But it is rare for former Indiana players and coaches to turn on Knight so vocally. Dakich has lost all respect for Knight, and he is not afraid to let everybody know.