My love for Bob Knight’s antics knows no bounds, so it is with great delight that I reblog this video from YouBeenBlinded.

The scene: somewhere in the Netherlands. The victim: an NOS reporter. The time: start at the 2:20 mark into the video. You might want to keep the sound down or headphones on for this one, as Knight uses some words that are not appropriate for an office setting, unless you worked in the Indiana basketball office from 1971-2000. Then these words were encouraged.

Did you watch “Parks And Recreation” last night? If not, you missed out. It was quite good. Very hilarious. (I was actually expecting worse, seeing as it’s so similar to “The Office” in style, and early reviews of the pilot were not favorable.) When you have sports blogging legend Michael Schur steering the ship and a cast that features the hilarious Aziz Ansari as well as Amy Poehler and Rashida Jones, I guess it’s hard to screw it up.

Two great things about the show being set in Indiana: 1) Amy Poehler’s character having a Larry Bird signed photo in her office. (Which I’m sure Schur just loved doing, being that he’s from New England and a Celtics fan.) 2) The character of Ron Swanson, a hardcore republican who aimed to privatize the parks and recreation department, rocking this amazing Bob Knight poster in his office:

Fantastic. I want that thing in my apartment. There’s another photo of it after the jump, as well as video.

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Let’s just get right to this:

While breaking down the brackets on Mike and Mike in the Morning, Knight abruptly stopped and changed the subject.

“Now, before we go into any more basketball, I’ve got to tell you about the best athletes in the country, and they aren’t American, they’re Russian,” Knight said. “They’re Russian ice skaters. I went to see them last night at the Riviera with (wife) Karen, and the title of the show is Ice. This was the most incredible athletic scene for an hour and 20 minutes that I’ve ever seen. Unbelievable.”

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“Don’t forget the Russian ice skaters,” Knight said. “I’m telling you, these guys, it must be 40 people, men and women, and they are the most athletic people. … There’s a girl that gets 11 hoops going at one time from head to toe while she’s skating. … I’ve never seen a group of athletes like this.”

Now, on the surface, this does seem kind of crazy. This is Bob Knight, arguably the greatest college basketball coach of all-time, on Mike and Mike in the Morning just days before the NCAA Tournament talking about Russian ice skaters. Then Mike and Mike getting him back on track. Then he goes back into it again.

But, I’m going to have to agree with Knight. Sort of. Now, there is no way these Russian ice skaters can jump out of the gym like a Stanley Robinson. But, like Knight, I have been incredibly amazed by this kind of gimmick athleticism recently. I saw Cirque Du Soleil’s Kooza this past summer, and the least jaw-dropping act there was twice as impressive as any play I witnessed in the Big Ten this year.

Since becoming part of the ESPN family, Bob Knight has been fairly tame. Sure, there’s been a subtle jab at Lou Holtz, and other minor stuff here and there, but the things Bob Knight used to do when he was the interviewee have been largely absent.

Couple that with his insane basketball acumen and rock-solid delivery, and you have one very good basketball analyst. It seems that those who always said he’d be a natural in front of the camera were right.

So, it comes with some fun that Bob Knight, while a caller on the Subway hotline on Mike and Mike in the Morning let out an expletive.

On Wednesday’s Mike and Mike in the Morning, Knight called in (on the Subway hotline, as the sponsor-heavy show calls it) to talk some college basketball. Things were going fine until a moment during the show when Knight suddenly seemed to think he had been cut off and said, “Oh, s**t. I lost you.”

With that, Knight hung up his phone, while co-host Mike Greenberg scrambled to try to get him back on topic, saying, “No, we got it. Bob Knight, we’re still there, we hear you. Bob, do you hear us? I think Bob Knight may have just lost us there, so we’ll try and get him back here. I was able to hear him.”

I agree with MDS over at FanHouse, because Knight has been a bit of tame beast since becoming a TV analyst, it was sort of refreshing to hear him blurt out a swear.

Though it was fleeting and likely an accident, it still felt right. We knew it was still in there somewhere, Bobby.

A lot of sports teams have pep talks during spring practices. The coach — if it’s a big-name school — brings in some celebrity to prepare the team as they prepare to prepare for the upcoming football season.
This year, Steve Spurrier, head coach (em up) of the South Carolina Gamecocks, brought in the one and only Bob Knight to speak to his team. No, seriously.

Knight spoke to the Gamecocks on Thursday. Knight, who won three NCAA titles with Indiana, was in town for ESPN’s broadcast of the South Carolina-Tennessee basketball game.

Gamecocks coach Steve Spurrier says he’s known Knight for several years and was glad to have him out at practice.

First of all, I’m going to do the respectable thing and skip all the Bob Knight screaming “The only c–k you understand involves s–king, you pathetic little chickens—s!” jokes. (My fake, angry Coach Knight has developed a punny sense of humor in his older age, thanks for asking.)

And I’m also not going to touch on the innumerable number of “Smelley” laughers that are out there. Instead, I’m kind of curious about something that Orson mentioned today: “Knight is an old acquaintance of Spurrier’s, and is responsible for showing a tape of a relatively unheralded Indiana recruit named Rex Grossman to Spurrier.”

Bob freaking Knight introduced the world to the Sex Cannon? Is that true? And if so, how the hell did I not know that? Admittedly, Grossman was a monster in high school (FanHouse’s Matt Snyder saw him in person, so I don’t even need to quote stats, obv) but you have to believe that if he doesn’t land in the Spurrier’s high-powered attack system, then he probably wouldn’t have tortured Chicago for all these years. So, couple that with Eamonn and Ryan being Bears fans and Indiana alums, and, yes, that would make it highly likely that Knight ruined their favorite football teams.

Well, he didn’t used the words “Georgia coaching vacancy” at any point yesterday — at least publicly — but he did say this on ESPN radio:

“It has to be a situation that I think is right for me and one where I would be right for the university,” Knight told ESPN Radio. “It has to be one, from my standpoint, where I think we would have the wherewithal to recruit and be able to compete with anybody.”

His name has been linked to the opening at Georgia, but Knight, who resigned as Texas Tech coach almost one year ago, said he has had no contact with Georgia.

Again, this isn’t an out and out “Hey Georgia, please hire me,” but it’s clear Knight is interested in returning to the sidelines again. If not, why wouldn’t he just deny the rumors? He expressed that same sentiment — wanting to coach again — to Brent Musburger as they called Pat Summitt’s attempt for her 1,000th win last night.

So, with Knight’s buddy telling the AJC he wants the job, and the General backing it up in part, where does Georgia go from here?

On one hand, you have the all-time winngingest coach at your disposal; he’s an individual known for discipline and success, a guy that does things the right way. Georgia is a football school that has money, hiring Knight brings instant excitement and credibility to the hardwood. The SEC isn’t exactly a power basketball conference. From that standpoint, why would you not pull the trigger on this?

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A lot of people like to whine about the insufferable talent on ESPN, but I think its college basketball team is pretty darn good. I like Jay Bilas; I like Rece Davis; I like Doug Gottlieb; Dan Shulman brings the fire and heck, I even like Dick Vitale. Sue me. (Oh, and Erin Andrews isn’t so bad either.)

And when they added Bob Knight last year, that was just icing on the cake. Bob Knight is awesome. So it was with my great delight this morning that I found out Knight will actually be calling games this year, on top of his studio analysis. From Sports Business Daily:

Basketball HOFer Bob Knight will return to ESPN’s college basketball telecasts this season in an expanded role. The former coach will be paired with Brent Musburger on weekly Thursday night games with various conferences, and he will work with Dan Shulman on non-conference games on other nights. Knight also will work as an on-site analyst for College GameDay.

Brent Musburger and Bob Knight together calling games. Wow. I can only imagine Knight sitting there, watching a team like Memphis run up and down the floor, with little semblance of a true set offense and slacking on defense, and him just starting to cuss his brains out on TV. I can’t wait.

“The Office,”  “30 Rock,” and “It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia” will be promptly DVRed on my Thursday nights coming soon. Bob Knight has the chance to be more entertaining than all these shows combined.

Via TBL.