UP CLOSE, PERSONAL WITH BOB, DON'T CALL ME BOBBY
Are we lucky or what? Virginia is among 17 states that will welcome ESPN BET Nov. 14. Just what the state needs, another national betting forum to make us a little – make that A LOT – poorer. Speaking of good fortune -- NOT -- we watched Bobby Knight, who passed Tuesday (Oct. 31) at age 83, up close and personal on several occasions. Truth be told, I always thought he was too mean to die. He was not a nice man … as all those stories about his nasty side would suggest. Two seldom mentioned were (1) his putdown, for no apparent reason, of a poor schlub moderating a post-game press conference at an NCAA regional and (2) shoving a drunk into a garbage can at the Final 4 in Philadelphia. I forget the year and venue but still vivid in this old, octogenarian mind is the Indiana coach, who had just lost a first-round game, belittling the volunteer. His crime? He said he wasn’t sure if Knight would make an appearance … matter of factly, without rancor, nor did he give an...