INDIANAPOLIS — People continue to share their memories of Bob Knight. He passed away Wednesday the age of 83.
13News reporter Rich Nye spoke with former 13News sports director Don Hein, who had a long, on-and-off relationship with Knight.
"No question, he was as he is," Hein said. "You know, at the time he was ... Bob really, I don't think, gave a diddly what people thought of him. He was going to do his stuff, and he did it for a long time. I saw him do a lot of things for little kids. He especially was very kind to women. If you could be an old woman, you were on his team."
Knight coached by intimidation, and he wanted to intimidate the media as well.
"He got to the media a little more than he got to me, I think," Hein said, laughing. "I took every second I could. Nobody else was getting that stuff, Rich, you know well. So just ride it out."
Nye asked Hein how he thought Knight should be remembered.
"He will be remembered as not only a great coach — and here comes the but — and a lot of the things he did that we didn't see still were good. And the but had to do with the way he reacted sometimes to people. I just remember he was so kind to me," Hein said. "People won't believe that Bob Knight, gruff and grumble guy, had a real soft heart. At least he did with me. And he valued things like having been a player before and he also ... I was always prepared when I went to interview him. He never would get one over on me because I had four or five slotted down there that I could go to and need. Yeah, and I think he respected that, too."
Hein was a former college basketball player himself, and that gave him sort of an "in" with Knight, Knight respected him for that. Hein said there were times during his long tenure at Channel 13 where Knight would not talk to him.