Richard Deitsch · @richarddeitsch
4th Apr 2013 from TwitLonger
Bob Knight is not speaking on Mike Rice. Why? Well, today on SiriusXM Radio, Vince Doria, ESPN's senior vice president and director of news, offered insight into the Knight Rules at ESPN. Nice work by host @MadDogUnleashed (who stepped up here)
A partial transcript, courtesy of ace PR person, Andy Fitzpatrick:
Doria: "We did ask Bobby whether or not he was willing to come on and talk about Rice. He respectfully declined to do so. We’re not going to force him to do that. He is, by the way, doing a game tonight and it is unlikely that he will comment on Rice there. We would have liked him to come on but I will say this about the Rice story. And, obviously, voyeuristically, everybody’s looking to hear from Bobby Knight, the one-time poster boy of putting his hands on players to weigh in on this. But this is not a very controversial topic of discussion here. I haven’t seen anybody weigh in on this at this point that hasn’t essentially agreed that it was eventually, you know, the outcome was correct here. So as to there being controversy here…"
Russo: "No, I agree with that but, see, if it was my call, I don’t want to see Knight do a game tonight. Knight can do a game when I get his thoughts here on what he feels about Mike Rice. He works for you. He is the guy everybody thinks about when you see this video here these last couple days. And you pay him a paycheck. He’s gotta give you, and if he doesn’t want to talk about it, fine, he doesn’t work the game, I don’t want to see him. So I can make that argument, as a viewer, that you are almost embarrassing everybody by putting Knight up there and he says, ‘Well, I’m not going to discuss Mike Rice.’ How can Bobby Knight do a game tonight in the NIT there, Vince, for ESPN, and not talk about Mike Rice? 20 miles from the [Rutgers] campus, from Madison Square Garden. That’s ridiculous."
Doria: "Well, you’ll have to tune in tonight and see how it could happen, I guess. Listen, would we have liked to hear from him on it? Yes, of course. He’s chosen not to. Bob Knight is what’s called an independent contractor here. We contract him to do a certain amount of games, certain amount of other elements here. He has the right to decline to do things if he doesn’t want to do them, within certain parameters. In this case, he’s within his rights not to comment on this and we’re not going to force him to do that. People who see that as, in some way, abrogating our obligation here, so be it. Everyone’s welcome to an opinion."