Thoughts for the Day, November 1, 2023: He was a great coach. Or was he?

Now that AG Nessel has dropped the political prosecutions in the Flint Water Case, Michigan’s lack of transparency will become a regular discussion item of this blog.  I am not alone in my disgust for our lack of transparency at the state level.  Here is what the top Lansing blogger, Bill Ballenger had to say in his blog this week.

Proposal One passed by the voters in 2022 would.

 *Require members of legislature, governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, and
attorney general file annual public financial disclosure reports after 2023, including
assets, liabilities, income sources, future employment agreements, gifts, travel
reimbursements, and positions held in organizations except religious, social, and
political organizations.
*Require legislature implement but not limit or restrict reporting requirements.
*Replace current term limits for state representatives and state senators with a 12-year total limit in any combination between house and senate, except a person elected to senate in 2022 may be elected the number of times allowed when that person became a candidate.

If the Legislature is unable to pass implementation language on the financial disclosure elements in Proposal 1 by the end of the year, anyone in the state would have standing to ask the Michigan Supreme Court to step in.

 It must and it will get done, but there are sure to be strenuous complaints about the final product from various reformers and interest groups, as there should be. But whatever is enacted this year can always be amended next year and beyond.

Michigan’s record of sunshine and financial disclosure in state government is a disgrace, and has been for a long time. We have long been one of only two states (Idaho is the other) without such strictures. Recent events involving two former state House Speakers, one of them just sentenced to 55 months in prison for bribery, show how sorely Michigan’s laws are lacking.

And then there is this which I received tonight from one the subscribers to my blog who recently retired after a long career in the newspaper business, which included extensive experience in Michigan. 

Here is information from the Michigan Press Association:  Michigan remains at the bottom of the government openness among fifty states.  The Center for Public Integrity gave the Great Lake State an “F” grade in 2015.  (nothing has changed since then)  In 2020 Michigan ranked 47 out of 50 for anti-corruption measures for public officials according to the Coalition for Integrity.  

Only the lawmakers can make this happen.  However, the citizens of Michigan can contact their legislators to push forward and improve Michigan’s open government law. 

It is time for us to start contacting our state legislators and demand transparency that is something we can be proud of. Being at the bottom of something like this is a disgrace.  Being at the bottom for over 8 years and not have anything done by the legislature during that time is downright despicable.

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The Lions’ beatdown of the Raiders on Monday Night Football, has brought major changes to the Raiders.  The Raiders owner stunningly fired head coach Josh McDaniels and general manager Dave Ziegler on Tuesday night, ending the former Patriots coordinator’s head-coaching gig after 25 games, less than two seasons into a six-year contract.

As the Lions found out, just because someone worked under the Patriots Bill Belichick doesn’t guarantee the person will be successful when out from under the shadows of Belichick.

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Former Indiana University basketball coach Bobby Knight passed away today at age 83. 

In my early days, I thought Bobby Knight was the greatest basketball coach on the face of the earth.  His 1976 team was the last team to go undefeated in a season (they beat Michigan in the NCAA finals). His players graduated (he wouldn’t put up any pennants for a team unless everyone on the team got their degree). He coached the 1984 U.S. National Team to the Olympic gold medal which was the last gold medal won by a U.S. team made up completely of amateurs.  He cut from that team, Charles Barkley, who went on to be a member of the Dream Team for the 1992 U.S. team. I do not recall his teams ever being under investigation by the NCAA during the early stages of his career. He had a reputation for running a highly successful program who graduated his players. As far as I was concerned, Bobby Knight was the greatest.

Then I read Season on the Brink, a book documenting a single season of basketball at IU.  The book opened my eyes to the other side of Knight. The “my way or the highway” philosophy. The in your face, grab, push, and verbally abuse players behind the closed doors of his practices was a regular part of his coaching behavior. 

He was stuck in the ways of old school coaching while the environment he worked in continually changed.  His act started to get old, and the protective veil he had which caused IU administration to look the other way started to come down.  His tough love of players was viewed as abuse. His berating of basketball referees was no longer tolerated. His challenges to authority no longer worked.  His being caught on tape choking an IU player during practice finally ended his days at IU after IU finally had a president who would stand up to Knight and all of Knight’s backers.

He went on to be successful at Texas Tech for six years and ultimately became the winningest basketball coach in NCAA history at the time. 

He was a great coach no doubt. Whether he was a great human being is another question.

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Quote of the Day: “One night, me with my big mouth, a couple of guys had to put me in my place. When I see those guys these days, we just laugh and say, “Do you remember when?” John Mellencamp from “Cherry Bomb”  

Orchid of the Day:  Nick Lyon, the former Director of HHS, who now has a major weight off his shoulders which never should have been there in the first place. 

Onion of the Day:  The state legislature. It is time to step up and move us near the top in transparency.

Question of the Day: Knight was a great coach. Or was he not?

Video/Image of the Day:  Dan Miller “Call of the Game”