Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr recalls ‘terrifying’ encounter with Bob Knight

Kings coach Mike Brown and Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr shared their thoughts on the death of Bob Knight prior to Wednesday’s game at Chase Center in San Francisco.

Kerr recalled a “terrifying” encounter with Knight, the firebrand college basketball coach who died earlier in the day at age 83, but first Kerr talked about Knight’s legacy as a Hall of Fame coach who won three NCAA championships at Indiana.

“Obviously, coach Knight had a huge impact on the game,” Kerr said during his pregame news conference. “He really was the dominant coaching figure in my childhood after John Wooden retired. Then coach Knight was the center of attention for a lot of good and bad reasons, but he made an incredible impact on the game and nobody will ever forget him with that personality and that demeanor and the way he went about his business. A very complex guy, but an amazing coach in many ways.”

Kerr noted that Lute Olson, his college coach at Arizona, was nothing like Knight, who was known for his fiery temper.

“He and coach Olsen could not have been more opposite, so I got a totally different experience than my fellow college student-athletes at Indiana, but I did come across coach Knight,” Kerr said. “We ran into each other in 1986. I was playing in the (FIBA) World Championship and he was doing television commentary.

“We had lost a game and (Knight) came to our practice. He pulled me aside and he basically went on a tirade. I had never met him before and he went on a tirade. He said I want you to take those bleeping bleep teammates of yours and bleep bleep and tell them to bleep bleep, and I said, ‘Yes, sir, coach Knight.’ And then I went to the players and I said, ‘Hey, coach Knight just encouraged us to play well tonight,’ and that was it. He was terrifying. I’m not going to lie.”

Brown said he never met Knight, but he considered going to play for him at Indiana before choosing to attend University of San Diego.

“My junior college coach, Tom Bennett, was friendly with (Knight), and as crazy as this is going to sound, there was a chance I was going to go walk on there, but that’s about it,” Brown said. “Never really crossed paths with him much throughout my time coming up, but definitely my condolences to his family and his friends. You can look at it as good or bad, however you want to, but he definitely had an imprint on the game in a lot of different ways.”