Raptors coach accuses Knight of racial slur

Friday, April 14th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) -- Toronto Raptors coach Butch Carter, who played for Bob Knight more than 20 years ago, says the Indiana coach used a racial slur during a tirade against a black player.

Knight, under investigation by the university for allegedl ychoking a former player, was called a "bully" and "self-serving coward" by Carter.

The charge of racist language comes days after a release of videotape by CNN/Sports Illustrated from an Indiana practice in 1997. Knight is shown grabbing the throat of a player believed to be Neil Reed, who has accused the coach of physical and verbal abuse.

Despite the accusations, many current and former players support Knight, whose 29-year career at the school has been marked by controversy but also has made him a basketball legend in the state. Hundreds of people attended a rally for him at Assembly Hall on Sunday.

Carter's remarks come in a book co-written by brother Cris, a Minnesota Vikings receiver. Excerpts from "Born to Believe" were published in today's National Post of Toronto.

A woman at Knight's office today said the coach was out of town.

According to Butch Carter, Knight stormed into the locker room after a practice and berated another player. He said he would end up like "all the rest of the niggers in Chicago, including your brothers."

"How far is that over the line of inappropriate and cowardly behavior?" Carter wrote.

Knight denied making the slur, and said in The Herald Times of Bloomington today, "Nobody has ever heard me use that word."

Carter did not identify the player but there is speculation it was Isiah Thomas, who is from Chicago and led the Hoosiers to the 1981 title. Thomas, however, said he never heard Knight use a racial slur.

"I can only tell you, from my experience, that has never happened. I never heard coach use that word," he said.

Mike Woodson, an assistant coach for the Cleveland Cavaliers, played with Carter in college. Like Carter, Woodson is black.

"I'm a little shocked that it's in a book because I never heard Knight use that word. This is a low blow," Woodson said.

Carter apparently fell out of favor with Knight when the coach learned he had used athletic department phones for more than $1,000 in long-distance calls.

In the book, Carter said he didn't get a college coaching job because Knight discouraged the athletic director from hiring him.

"I played for Knight, was his captain and I graduated on time, yet he had the power to defeat me professionally," he said.

In the book, Carter also said Knight violated the onfidentiality of a player, also not identified, by revealing intimate details during a locker-room talk.

"I knew I was never going to trust this man with anything going on in my life. ... Not only was Knight clearly not a friend, he was a self-serving coward who masqueraded as a confidante," Carter said.

The book, published by Full Wits Publishing, goes on sale May 1. Carter said the excerpt was released because of leaks.

In a statement today by the publisher, Carter noted the Knight chapter was one of 25 in the book and he doesn't plan any further comment on the book. He said he wrote the book last November.

"I'm going to stand by what I wrote," he told The Fan, a Toronto all-sports radio station, this morning. "I don't have any problems with it. "I think some guys have to do what they've got to do, who were in that situation. But I think it was something that impacted me largely, for the next years on how things played out. I'm not going to apologize for what happened to me in my life."