He sat next to Phelps and started ripping Ewing, the most dominant center in college basketball. As his team took the court, Knight walked up carrying his shoes.
The next day, Phelps sat on the bench inside The Forum in Inglewood. They grew close over the years, both ending up as head coaches in the same state, Phelps at Notre Dame and Knight at Indiana. In 1963, Phelps had been a graduate assistant at Rider while Knight was an assistant two hours north at West Point. They were wrestling in their room and Ewing has a twisted neck.” “Knight wants to send Ewing home,” he said. We’ve got a problem and you’re the only one who can handle this.” Phelps told Newton he would take a taxi and meet up with the team at tomorrow’s workout. Phelps had assisted Knight during the trials, but he was working the tournament as an ABC analyst alongside Keith Jackson. Newton and told him he was staying at another location. That team was incredible, and to have Bobby Knight, a person who pretty much gets all the blood out of the stone? Ah, man.”Īfter the bus parked at the team hotel in Southern California, Digger Phelps, who had been riding with the team, found Team USA assistant coach C.M. “Eighty-four was just pageantry, man,” Georgetown guard Gene Smith said. Interviewed 36 years later, coaches and players marveled at how the team was built, Knight’s influence and the impact the trials had on those who didn’t make the cut. But the process of building that team was itself the stuff of legends. Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing, Sam Perkins, Chris Mullin and Wayman Tisdale certainly provided star power, and Knight had filled the rest of the roster with shooters, screeners and defenders, a complete team that could win in different ways. Already veteran writers were claiming that this might be the best Olympic men’s basketball team ever. Many thought Knight could have picked two teams strong enough to win Olympic gold.Īs it was, the 43-year-old Knight had a team more than capable.
Over time, the omissions of Karl Malone, John Stockton and others would join that conversation. The biggest controversy surrounding the selection of the team centered on Knight’s decision to cut Charles Barkley. Midway through the trials, George Washington big man Michael Brown asked every player to sign a trials game program, a souvenir he would keep for decades. The historical implications weren’t lost on those there. Among the 72 prospects invited to the Olympic trials in Bloomington, Ind., were 37 future first-round NBA Draft picks, 12 future NBA All-Stars and seven future Hall of Famers. The 12 players on board had emerged from perhaps the greatest collection of amateur talent the sport had seen. Behind the Mustang, a bus transported Knight’s team and staff.
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