COMMENTARY : Knight Should Have Taken Time Out to Honor Wooden

As it turns out, the biggest mistake in college basketball this season was not made by Michigan’s Chris Webber, but by Indiana’s Bob Knight.

It happened in Los Angeles during the annual John Wooden Award festivities Wednesday afternoon and evening. And although Knight’s slight did not occur on national TV, or cost any team a national championship, it was no less significant than poor Webber calling for a timeout his Wolverines didn’t have coming.

In fact, it was much more significant.

Webber is a college sophomore who, with 65,000 screaming people in the New Orleans Superdome, network television cameras pointed at him and the ultimate pressure of a championship game on the line and the clock ticking toward zero, simply forgot something.

Knight is an adult--well, he’s 53--a Division I basketball coach, part of whose job is to teach and inspire and lead by example; who should, by the very nature of his position, be responsible. People like Knight live in glass houses. It’s part of the deal.

When Knight made his mistake, he had nothing similar to the time pressure or performance pressure Webber faced. He had time to ponder, to weigh the facts and consider the ramifications.

So what did Bobby the boor do?

He was a no-show. He went fishing. He shrugged off an invitation that should have quickly become a commitment.

In short, he thumbed his nose at John Wooden.

Yes, there are a million awards dinners and a million people asking a million things of Knight. And yes, for Knight, the need to say no most of the time is probably crucial to his survival and sanity.

But this wasn’t the Wednesday noon Kiwanis luncheon in Ft. Wayne. This was the L.A. Athletic Club’s Wooden Award dinner, a nationally established event that, for many people, compares to the New York Downtown Athletic Club’s Heisman Trophy in college football.

In addition, Knight’s star player, Calbert Cheaney, was the clear favorite to win the award, and did. Knight told members of the Wooden Award committee that he needed to know for sure that Cheaney was the winner before he would consider coming. The organizers told him they couldn’t tell him that, because they didn’t know themselves, and wouldn’t know until the envelope from the auditing company was opened Wednesday noon.

Just about every sportswriter around who speculated on the outcome of the award voting called Cheaney the obvious favorite. And because Knight considers, and calls, sportswriters idiots, it seems logical that, if idiots could figure out Cheaney’s chances, why couldn’t a genius such as Knight?

The key element here is Wooden. He is 82, won 10 NCAA titles, has remained quietly active in basketball and remains college athletics’ No. 1 class act. He is an American treasure, a man whose very presence at a podium triggers an automatic standing ovation.

Those who understand, who unlike Knight know that an individual cannot ever be bigger than the game itself and the game’s traditions, came Wednesday night to honor Wooden, to be with him and around him and hope that some of him rubbed off. They came with full knowledge that to be invited to spend time with Wooden is an opportunity, not a chore.

Steve Fisher, the Michigan coach who 48 hours earlier had suffered a huge disappointment, said, “I am here with tremendous pride, and am deeply moved to be part of your program tonight.”

His player, Webber, who had more reason than anybody to duck all this, said: “I was watching Roy Firestone on ESPN the other night, and he said that every time he talks to John Wooden, he learns something. Well, I have listened to Coach Wooden here tonight, and I certainly have learned something.”

Pete Gaudet, assistant coach from Duke sent to represent nominee Bobby Hurley and Coach Mike Krzyzewski, said: “We have done some good things at Duke, had some great success, but we are also used to hearing our success discussed with a starting phrase: ‘Not since John Wooden . . . ‘ Like I said, we’ve done some good things, but in comparison, it’s not even close.”

In a nicely ironic way, Knight’s absence at Wednesday’s dinner served to further underline the incredible qualities of Wooden.

Wooden was magnificent in his stint at the podium. He talked about friends, about faith. And he talked about family, eventually going through the names of all his own children right down to current grandchildren, great-grandchildren and even great-grandchildren on the way.

With anybody else, it would have been self-indulgent. With Wooden, it was perfectly acceptable, even pointedly emotional.

“No, there’s nothing like family,” he said. “There was a time, after I lost my dear Nellie (his late wife), when I didn’t have a lot to keep going on for. But now, as the young ones have come along, they have given me a reason to go on a little longer.”

Calbert Cheaney should have been the highlight of the evening. But he wasn’t there, and the scripted film of him accepting the award didn’t quite cut it.

Rick Pitino and his Kentucky player Jamal Mashburn, one of the five Wooden All-Americans, should have been part of the highlights of the evening, but they weren’t there, either.

Coach K and his Duke star, Hurley, should have been there, too, but at least Duke had the grace to send Gaudet.

Coach Larry Finch and his Memphis State star, Anfernee Hardaway, were there, as were Fisher and Webber.

But most of all, Knight--who has been around, knows better and even preaches the very kinds of ethics and responsibility he snubbed by not showing--should have been there.

Wooden addressed the situation gracefully, as always.

“We are disappointed that the others are not here,” he said. “We are disappointed, but we understand.”

Sorry. We don’t.

In the end, the event organizers were told that Bob Knight went fishing. Hope he caught his thumb.