Bob Knight once brought a gun to practice while he was head coach at Indiana and waved it around wildly, much to the fear of everyone on the team, according to one of his former players.
Dan Dakich, a former player and assistant under Knight, joined the “Pardon my Take” podcast by Barstool Sports this week and shared the insane story of Knight’s behavior.
Host Big Cat asked Dakich the craziest thing Knight did in terms of motivational coaching. Dakich served up a story nobody could have expected.
“People said before I got there that he took a dump on a chair and showed it to the team in the middle of the locker room,” Dakich recalled. “I can’t verify that — I wasn’t there. But he brought a gun to practice once. He brought a shotgun.
“If normal people bring a shotgun to practice, they’re not normal. He’s waving it around and we don’t know if it’s loaded or not. So everybody’s kind of ducking as that shotgun is spinning around, you almost see the wave in reverse. Everybody’s going down because it’s Bobby Knight in practice. Nothing good happens there, man. So that stuck with me forever,” Dakich said.
“This dude’s got a gun at practice. Holy hell,” Dakich remembers thinking.
Dakich is also known for once stopping North Carolina’s Michael Jordan during the 1984 NCAA Tournament. He remembers what Knight’s attitude was like entering the game.
“I remember this and I use it today in coaching. We had Sunday meetings. I came in and I’ll never forget this. he came in and slammed the door and said, ‘We’re going to beat North Carolina’s a–. And if anybody in this room don’t believe it, just get the —- out right now.’ I’ll never forget that,” said Dakich.
Knight’s behaviors in coaching are notorious as much as they are legendary. He also kept up his defiant behaviors well after coaching when he served as a broadcaster.
Would such behavior be tolerated these days? Not a chance. Knight’s extreme coaching and disciplinary methods eventually cost him his job at Indiana. If this story every got out there now, Knight would have a very difficult time finding a job.
Tip via Crab Man
