How other sports columnists viewed the firing of Bobby Knight

If an English professor or a geology professor or a dean of students acted as Knight has over the years, he would surely have been flung out the door long ago. If Knight wants to make a point to a student about correct behavior, all he has to do is tell him or e-mail him or call his parents. But keep your hands off him. And if civility or professional behavior isn't incentive enough, then how being under probation of zero tolerance?

Jim Litke, Associated Press

He was done long before this.

That Bob Knight's career at Indiana ended with a whimper instead of one last loud bang should come as no surprise. It might even be better this way.

Knight's victims have suffered long enough; for that matter, so has he. An entire university and much of the state need to move on. So does he.

Bill Lyon, Philadelphia Inquirer

Bob Knight, tyrant, has come to the end that was inevitable.

A genius as a basketball coach but a raging madman subject to volcanic bursts of fury, he has been done in by his own hand.

Knight was a despot and a martinet, foul of temper and fouler still of mouth, and he is not the least bit sympathetic.

And yet you cannot help but feel that he was victimized by Indiana University, the school that was blatantly intimidated by him and that tolerated his shameful conduct because he won national championships.

Bill Reynolds, Providence Journal

In many ways Knight was a product of the culture that created him. It's a culture whose Holy Grail is winning, and everything else gets sacrifced on its altar. Indiana continued to allow him to coach, no doubt clinging to the belief that Knight would one day outgrow the tantrums that would make a 10-year-old look foolish, stop being the bully that always was Bobby Knight at his worst, the ongoing side show.

He never did.

In fact, his behavior only seemed to get worse. Aging hasn't been one of Knight's strong suits.