Day Without Knight Hurts Him More Than ESPN

When ESPN Radio talks in depth again Thursday about the removal of Rutgers men's basketball coach Mike Rice, it will do so without its own in-house bully and someone who might have been able to add interesting insights: Bob Knight.

Still, that's probably a good thing for the show. For Knight, not so much.

According to Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated, Knight cancelled his scheduled appearance on "Mike and Mike" late Wednesday night. ESPN said Knight declined comment on Rice.

Had Knight appeared on the show, the questions asked and his responses would have been interesting. 

After all, Knight crafted a legendary career at Indiana and Texas Tech that included a couple high-profile bullying incidents of his own. His actions never reached the level of those revealed by Rice in the Rutgers practice video earlier this week that eventually led to his firing, but Knight certainly would've had an opinion. And if co-hosts Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic did their jobs well the result would have been appropriate questions and entertaining radio.

Of course, we'll never know what would've happened -- because Knight has brought his bullying approach to his role as an analyst, too. Apparently, he can decide when he will or will not appear on ESPN and ESPN Radio.

At the same time, his absence saves ESPN Radio from the embarrassment of what a radio interview with Greenberg, Golic and Knight could have become. Remember, Knight went most of the 2011-12 season covering college basketball and refusing to say "Kentucky" in regard to the eventual national champion because of his distaste for Wildcats coach John Calipari. So the Hall of Fame coach certainly knows how to control a message -- and had he been given anything close to a free pass of soft questions from the network's morning radio team it would've meant a credibility hit for the network.

While "Mike and Mike" might not regularly rival "Outside the Lines" atop the sports journalism journalistic hierarchy, the radio show regularly goes about its business professionally and well. Not having Knight as initially scheduled hurts a little, but it hurts him more than the show.