Bob Knight Signs Contract With ESPN to be Studio and Game Analyst

In a sports story that is simply delicious with irony, Bob Knight is now an official member of the media. Details were released today of Knight’s contract with ESPN that will make him a regular contributor to college basketball studio shows, as well as a color announcer for select games.

Bob Knight stepped into the media ring last year after retiring from Texas Tech as the all-time winningest coach in the history of mens college basketball. For Knight, it meant joining forces with the very same group of people with whom he had such an antagonistic relationship with during his coaching career.

By most accounts, Bob Knight was outstanding during his short stint as a studio analyst during last year’s NCAA tournament. He is obviously extremely informed and knowledgeable, but also very insightful and concise in his analysis and explanation — not always an easy thing for a former coach to do. Plus, there is always the added excitement of Knight being capable of saying anything at any time. Surely ESPN has to be at least slightly worried that Knight could explode on-air at some point — or perhaps that is precisely part of the attraction.

Either way, as anyone who has read my posts about IU basketball knows, I firmly believe that college basketball is a much better and more entertaining place when Bob Knight is prominently involved. Now he will be on a regular basis. Here are a few of the details of his new engagement with ESPN:

• Bob Knight will be the color announcer for weekly Thursday night games on ESPN. He’ll be with Dan Shulman until Brent Musberger finishes up his football duties on January 15th, at which time Knight will be looking live at college basketball games with Musberger beside him doing play-by-play.
• Bob Knight will appear weekly on SportsCenter in January and February, as well as be a special guest on Mike and Mike in the Morning and the Tirico & Ven Pelt shows beginning in December.
• He will also make appearances for the 8 College GameDay shows scheduled for the upcoming basketball season. These should be the most entertaining moments of the season involving Knight, as he will be able to banter back and forth with old friends Dick Vitale and Digger Phelps and eat Rece Davis for lunch if Davis ever tries to reign him in.

For fans of Bob Knight, and even for haters, today’s report is exciting. Love him or hate him, Bob Knight knows more about basketball than 99.99% of people who have ever lived and he is good at talking about it. Plus, there’s nothing like watching a TV show when no level of conduct or speech — good or bad — is outside the realm of possibility.

[tags]espn, bob knight, college basketball[/tags]

Tags: bob knight, espn

---------------

If you enjoyed this post, please consider sharing with your friends: