I can’t recall a bigger recent non-story that has received as much attention as Bob Knight’s resignation at Texas Tech. After all, it’s not like the volatile coach announced his permanent retirement, since even he has stated he’s not ready for that. No, there’s a strong likelihood Knight will receive job offers and choose a spot in time for the 2008-09 season. And what about Knight’s reason for stepping down, that he just couldn’t coach at Texas Tech anymore and wouldn’t serve his team well in continuing? Isn’t that pretty disingenuous when there's a good chance he left the Red Raiders in midstream to insure that son Pat would succeed him?

But to listen to the commentators and read the newspapers and Internet, you’d think someone like Mike Krzyzewski was suddenly walking away from Duke. Coach K, a Knight disciple who played for him at Army and worked for him at Indiana, has had as distinguished a career as his mentor, and unless something intervenes, is on pace to eclipse Knight’s all-time victory mark sometime in the future. Had he suddenly walked out on his team the screaming headlines and wall-to-wall coverage the Knight story has gotten would be merited.

So why all the hullabaloo about Knight’s move? Chalk it up to the fascination the media and the public have had over the years with the Peck’s Bad Boy of sports.

Is there a basketball fan who hasn’t seen the video of Knight flinging a chair across the court at Indiana’s Assembly Hall? Who isn’t aware that he once choked a player at a team practice, or of his multiple post game outbursts, his confrontations with the media or his insulting actions in Puerto Rico as a representative of the U.S. at an international sports competition? Knight’s bullying and boorish behavior is legendary; it cost him his job at Indiana, despite the fact he was once enjoyed deity-like status in the Hoosier state.

Yet there has always been the other side to Knight. The consummate teacher who molded young men into solid citizens, who made his players go to class, who insisted that they graduate. Knight has done lots of acts of kindness and charity, and has a legion of defenders made up of former players, assistant coaches, coaching colleagues and members of the media. Probably the quintessential assessment of Knight is offered by those who say, “I don’t agree with a lot of things he’s done, but I’d gladly send my son to play for him.”

But there are other very successful college basketball coaches who have the same positive attributes that Knight does but don’t have his dark side. We’ve already mentioned Coach K. How about Dean Smith, the man whose victory record Knight broke? Or John Wooden, the greatest of them all? Dig deep, and you’ll likely find quirky behavior and even actions these men regret, but all have exhibited a public demeanor that is above reproach.

No, the fascination with Knight is similar to that of waiting for a train wreck to happen. The train might be a sleek, powerful object moving effortlessly and beautifully down the track, but in a predictable way, an observer knows it will derail. The Bob Knight train has left the Lubbock station; left behind college athletes and a community that assumed he’d be in their corner at least through the end of the season. The train is now searching for another destination, one where it will be welcomed with open arms, at least until it goes off the track, yet again.