Knight Fall: Bobby Knight, The Truth Behind America's Most Controversial Coach:

There were parts that were informative, and it was an interesting read, but Berger's anti-Knight bias came through on every page, sometimes in obvious ways, and sometimes subtley, like using the word "claimed" instead of "said" when quoting Knight.

There were quite a few typos, misspelled words and grammatical errors, and they detracted from the book.

If you're only going to read one book on Knight, read Feinstein's A Season on the Brink. But if you have a little more time on your hands, Berger's is still worth the read, typos, biases, and all.


Weak - maybe worthy of a magazine article... maybe...   December 20, 2001
 4 out of 4 found this review helpful

I've read just about every book on Knight. As an IU alum who graduated one of the years that the Hoosiers won a national championship, most of the student body (myself included) - viewed RMK as a demi-God. Certainly he was blessed with one of the finest basketball minds in history.

Berger's book follows in the footsteps of three major works on RMK: Feinstein's _Season on the Brink_ (the success of which every subsequent effort attempts to duplicate); Mellen's _Bob Knight: His Own Man_ and Alford's _Playing for Knight_. All three are worth reading (especially _Season_) for the serious "Knight-o-phile".

Berger's book is definitely tabloid in appearance. Each page seems to have 30 lines of large text on it. Therefore the book appears as though it could have been printed on 75 pages in a conventional book format. The sparse text maps directly to the quality of content. It is sketchy at best.

IMO, Berger's heavy reliance upon previously published histories and newspaper articles dooms this work from the outset. The only area I found remotely interesting was Knight's childhood and schoolboy athletic career.

The remainder is a rehash of mostly negative Knight incidents. Certainly RMK deserves criticism for his histrionics and outrageous behavior that erupts from time to time. However, Berger mostly omits the litany of his positive and charitable achievements. More importantly, he never mentions what is certainly one of RMK's most engaging aspects: his incredible sense of humor. Knight, when he wants to be, is among the most humorous and quotable characters on the public landscape today.

Thumbs down for this vapid attempt to capitalize on the "Knight effect". Berger certainly can do better than this. Instead - read any of the three books mentioned earlier - they're far better uses of your time.


Don't waste your time or money!   January 14, 2001
 8 out of 8 found this review helpful

I bought this book while traveling through an airport bookstore. Don't make the same mistake I did! The book is fluff, I almost finished it on a less than two hour flight. I was hoping to find out something new on Coach Knight given his recent dismissal, but found nothing more than a newspaper article could of given me. In fact, the entire book reads like a collection of newspaper articles strung together to make a book. There is nothing new here! If you want to read about Coach Knight, buy "Season on the Brink," so far the most definitive text on him.


Thrown together in a hurry!   December 6, 2000
 1 out of 3 found this review helpful

It's obvious that this book was put together pretty quickly in order to make a few bucks. Typos and spelling errors were evident. I don't suppose there will ever be a definitive Bob Knight book written. Knight wouldn't collaborate because it would have to show the total man, warts and all. And most writers probably wouldn't be interested in the good deeds he does behind the scenes for many people. The man was a tremendous coach but his complete story will probably never be told. Still, it was time for a change. The lust for winning created a Texas-sized ego in Indiana. It's just too bad he went out in much the same way as Woody Hayes.