Don't Mentor Like Bob Knight

On Thursday, just-retired winningest-ever college basketball coach Bob Knight was interviewed on a popular radio sports show. He just quit, in the middle of the season, as coach of Texas Tech’s men’s basketball team, so that his assistant coach son could take over as head coach. Anyway, why he was being interviewed is not relevant here.
The important point is that Knight made some very emphatic remarks that reveal quite a bit about his style of mentoring players. It is a style that sucks. He was as successful as he was despite, and not because of, his mentoring style. Don’t mentor your trainees like Bob Knight.
(Streaming video and analysis are below the fold. The interesting parts start at about five minutes in; if you don’t want to watch I have summarized the relevant bits.)

Don’t Mentor Like Bob Knight

On Thursday, just-retired winningest-ever college basketball coach Bob Knight was interviewed on a popular radio sports show. He just quit, in the middle of the season, as coach of Texas Tech’s men’s basketball team, so that his assistant coach son could take over as head coach. Anyway, why he was being interviewed is not relevant here.
The important point is that Knight made some very emphatic remarks that reveal quite a bit about his style of mentoring players. It is a style that sucks. He was as successful as he was despite, and not because of, his mentoring style. Don’t mentor your trainees like Bob Knight.
(Streaming video and analysis are below the fold. The interesting parts start at about five minutes in; if you don’t want to watch I have summarized the relevant bits.)