On Wednesday, November 1st, the basketball world lost a legend Bob Knight, he passed away at the age of 83. Knight enjoyed an outrageously successful stint as a college basketball coach, spending nearly his entire career with Indiana and working a few years with the Army and Texas Tech.
Knights success with the Hoosiers made it so that he didnt have many regrets from his career, but if there was one remorse he had, according to Bob Ryan, it involved letting Larry Bird leave Indiana before he ever took the court for them.
However, Bird claims there’s really just one reason he went to State Road 37 and took a rideshare to get home.
Knight is quoted by Seth Davis in his book “When March Went Mad: The Game That Transformed Basketball” as saying, “Larry Bird is one of my great mistakes.” I failed to recognize what Bird needed at that particular point in his life. .
Financially I just couldnt stay. In the TNT interview, Bird stated, “I just couldn’t do it.” It wasn’t like I didn’t like the coach or was homesick. .
There are numerous stories about why Bird departed a few weeks after his arrival.
That makes sense after he went on to have a career that was inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame and won three NBA Most Valuable Player awards.
Larry dropped out of Indiana after just one month
Before going on to have an NBA career with the Boston Celtics that would earn him a Hall of Fame career, Bird would go on to have a legendary college career at Indiana State. Prior to everything, he had a difficult month at Indiana that almost ended his basketball career.
Bird was given a scholarship by Knight to attend Indiana, but prior to leaving, he had no relationship with his coach. Bird was persuaded to leave by this, the culture shock of college, and the unkind treatment he experienced from his teammates.
“His relationship with Larry Bird when he went to Indiana was nil. Larry Bird left Indiana because he was socially uncomfortable and totally overwhelmed by this urban life and the wealth of the students Larry Bird went there, he told me, with $75 and one pair of pants that was supposed to last him til he was to come home for Christmas. And then he wasnt treated well by Kent Benson and the players with scrimmages and all that as well.” – said Bob Ryan on Jeff Goodman Podcast
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