Bob Knight’s 10 best quotes: Calling a 21-year-old Michael Jordan the ‘best ever’, comparing himself to Santa Claus, the ‘power of negative thinking’ and telling his critics to ‘kiss my ass’

Bob Knight’s impact on basketball is almost unparalleled, but it wasn’t just his knowledge of the game that kept him a constant presence on sports pages in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.

Despite his best efforts to the contrary, the legendary Indiana coach was a natural for sportswriting — a group he persistently vilified before his death this week at age 83.

“We all learn to write in the second grade,” Knight once said of newspaper reporters. “Most of us move on to bigger things.”

But those who didn’t move on to “bigger things” always had something to write about when the polarizing Knight was in the room. With that in mind, the following is a look back at Knight’s most memorable quotes and his own unique brand of Hoosier hospitality:

‘The best basketball player I’ve ever seen play’

Knight’s time with Michael Jordan was short-lived. The two won an Olympic gold medal together at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, but even in just one summer working together, the 6-foot-2 guard from North Carolina made a remarkable impact on Indiana’s head coach.

“Just an absolutely great kid,” Knight said of Jordan. “If I were to pick the three or four best athletes I’ve ever seen play basketball, he would be one of them. I think he’s the best athlete I’ve ever seen play basketball, bar none. If I were to pick people with the best skills I’ve ever seen play the game, he would be one of them. If I wanted to pick the best competitors I have ever seen play, he would be one of them.”

Knight then shared an opinion that is widely accepted today, but which at the time had yet to be expressed by anyone with the Coach’s credentials.

“In the categories of competitiveness, skill, ability and then athleticism, he’s the best athlete, he’s one of the best competitors, he’s one of the most skilled players,” Knight said. “To me, that makes him the best basketball player I’ve ever seen play.”

Of course, Jordan’s status as “the best basketball player” Knight had ever seen play couldn’t save the future Chicago Bulls legend from the Coach’s wrath.

After Jordan’s six-turnover performance against West Germany, Knight is said to have moved His Airness to tears.

“You should be ashamed of the way you played,” Knight yelled at Jordan, according to Roland Lazenby’s “Michael Jordan: The Life.”

Sam Perkins, an Olympic and collegiate teammate of Jordan, remembers his friend shedding a few tears.

“He told Michael it was the worst thing he ever played,” Perkins said in a radio interview in 2016. “Michael is going to deny it, but he was crying.”

‘Mental resilience is as good as physical as four for one’

Knight’s coaching career is littered with similar quotes, many of which focused on conditioning his students to avoid self-pity.

“If I were in charge, I would drug test all you guys, not just the athletes.”

While addressing the Indiana student body, Knight was asked about drug testing on his players.

Not only was he in favor of it, but he said he would expand the testing to every student at the school.

His theory, Knight later explained, was to identify anyone with a dependency problem who might need help.

‘We would beat anyone’

In the days before the NCAA allowed athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness, compensation of any college basketball player was strictly prohibited.

Of course, that didn’t necessarily stop bad actors from bribing players to attend certain schools.

Indiana avoided such suspicions under Knight, who eventually directed a rather pointed quote at his less ethical rivals.

“If my main goal here at Indiana is to go out and win ball games, I can probably do that as well as anyone,” he said. “I would just cheat, get some money from a lot of people in Indianapolis who want to run the operation that way, and just go out and get the best basketball players I can. Then we would beat everyone.’

The three-time national champion still managed to win without violating NCAA rules.

“I’ve always said that if I ever get to a point where I can’t control myself anymore, I’ll quit.”

Knight’s prophetic quote for Sports Illustrated in 1981 is sure to raise a few eyebrows, given what we know now.

After years of outrageous outbursts, Knight was caught choking a player, Neil Reed, during a Hoosiers practice in 1997.

This turned out to be the final straw. When video of the incident surfaced in 2000, Knight was ultimately fired and refused to return to the Bloomington campus until February 2020, when his 1981 title-winning team was honored.

When asked about the members of the government who fired him, Knight said in 2017, “I hope they’re all dead.”

“When my time on earth is over and my activities here are over, I want them to bury me upside down, and for my critics to kiss my ass!”

Perhaps Knight’s most iconic quote: The Hoosiers Coach addressed the Indiana faithful in Alumni Hall, where he gave fairly precise instructions on how he wanted to be buried.

“People want national championship banners. People want to talk about Indiana being competitive. How do we get there? Milk and cookies won’t get us there’

Knight’s ability to communicate depended primarily on his direct approach. He did not ignore uncomfortable details and refused to paint a rosy picture for the public. Recruits and assistant coaches knew they weren’t in Bloomington to have fun, and Knight made good on that promise.

“My grandmother gave me my first look at negative thinking to achieve positive results. When I was a little boy, every time I came to my grandmother and said I wished for this or that, Grandma would say, “If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.”

Knight called his 2013 book “The Power of Negative Thinking,” and he lived by that ethos.

By focusing on the negatives – the things we’d all rather ignore – Knight felt like he was protecting himself from setbacks.

‘Do you remember growing up as a child and believing in Sinterklaas? There’s not much difference between Santa and me today, you know. We are two sweet, overweight boys who really enjoy children’

It’s somewhat ironic that Knight felt like he looked like Santa Claus, considering his aforementioned statement about milk and cookies.

‘Everyone hears, but few listen’

Knight’s quotes often read like an Army drill instructor, and that’s no mistake.

Like a sergeant, Knight judged everyone on their ability to follow directives. Those who struggled were pushed aside, while the few who met his standards remained in the picture in Bloomington.