Bob Knight to Return to Indiana University to Address Students
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Now to a story out of the world of sports that still echoes in the sporting world today. That's the firing of Bob Knight from this past weekend. The Indiana coach returns to campus today for a student forum where he will address students later tonight. He's also been defending himself in the media. John Giannone of CNN Sports Illustrated has a look now at both sides of the Knight saga.</s>JOHN GIANNONE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On May 15, Bob Knight signed a 94-word open letter insisting he would abide by the zero tolerance policy that threatened his regime at Indiana. As it turns out, Knight says he couldn't even define the phrase.</s>BOB KNIGHT, FMR. INDIANA BASKETBALL COACH: I asked the vice president of the university as recently as last Thursday. I said, can you explain "zero tolerance" to me? And he looked me right in the eye and said, no, I can't.</s>CHRISTOPHER SIMPSON, INDIANA UNIV. SPOKESMAN: It's difficult to call the code nebulous -- let me rephrase that. It is difficult to define "zero tolerance" as nebulous when we've simply put it in writing and put it down and the coach has agreed to it. I don't know what's nebulous about that. But I know what Bob Knight told Myles Brand, I know what Bob Knight has told many people on the senior staff at the university and some of the trustees, is: Do you think I can live within the guidelines? Well, of course I can. And he said that repeatedly. So I don't know that there's any dispute there.</s>GIANNONE: Knight disputed many of the claims the university used in explaining the dismissal. Tops among them, the alleged verbal confrontation in late July with the school's legal counsel.</s>KNIGHT: I did not scream at her, I did not yell at her, I did not use profanity, I did not talk in a voice any higher than I'm talking to you now. If that is interpreted by anybody as abuse, that's their interpretation.</s>SIMPSON: The conversation denigrated to the point where she described it to me as being initially unnerving, later intimating and borderline threatening. The coach was rude, and she said he was profane. At the end of that conversation, she said to the coach, this is not productive, there's no need to continue. And the coach said, then I think you should leave.</s>GIANNONE: As for the last straw incident last Thursday in which Knight grabbed and scolded a 19-year-old freshman student, Knight remains defiant and unapologetic.</s>KNIGHT: What I did with that student was simply try to teach him something about manners. And I said I'd do it tomorrow and I'll do it the next day.</s>SIMPSON: The fact of the matter is, inappropriate physical contact was something that specifically was forbidden under the guidelines, and there was inappropriate physical contact, in our opinion.</s>GIANNONE: In Bloomington, I'm John Giannone.</s>HEMMER: And we mentioned, Coach Knight's going to address the students at IU later tonight, planned for 7:00 Eastern. And we plan live coverage of that when it happens.