Texas Tech University Athletics
Coach Knight focuses on Packers' minds
August 20, 2003 | Men's Basketball
Aug. 20, 2003
Lubbock, TX - At the behest of coach-GM Mike Sherman, legendary college basketball coach Bob Knight delivered a 30-minute speech to the Green Bay Packers on Tuesday morning.
Knight focused on a topic dear to his heart: The things he believes are important to winning. The Texas Tech and former longtime Indiana coach is a featured speaker at today's Lombardi Leadership Conference, set for 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the KI Center.
Knight said: "I told them, 'Talent is not anywhere near the top of the list of things necessary to win, because everybody has talent.
"So why doesn't everybody win? What has to take the place of talent in terms of winning? There are four things:
"Do you listen? Do you hear or do you listen? Can you see? Or do you just look? Can you communicate with people? Can you see something and say something? What kind of concentration do you have? From that concentration (is there) anticipation and recognition and reaction and execution?
"And underlining all of this I said it's my belief in all the years I've been around sports, I believe very strongly that the mental is to the physical as 4 is to 1."
Brett Favre said Knight's appearance caught the team by surprise. Sherman allowed Knight to walk into the full-team morning meeting alone.
"Right at 9 o'clock Bob Knight walked in," Favre said. "I looked up and said, 'I know that man from somewhere.' Before he said anything everyone started clapping."
Favre said Knight's analogy that the mental is to the physical as 4 is to 1 caught his attention.
"It's really true," he said.
Knight, the winningest active coach in NCAA Division I basketball, will be the first honorary member to be inducted into the Vince Lombardi Titletown Legends.
The Legends is a non-profit organization made up of former Lombardi players that endows other non-profits throughout the state.
The colorful, controversial and successful coach frequently invites guest speakers to talk with his teams. The benefit, he believes, is "hearing it from somebody else."
Knight said: "It might make a player think, 'If all these guys think the same thing, there must be something to it.'"
Favre agreed.
"Mike's had men like Bill Russell, Joe Frazier, Fuzzy Thurston and now Bob Knight talk to us, and I think it's a good thing," Favre said. "He's a legend. He was funny. He told some stories. I was really amazed at his football knowledge.
"I also think coming from someone like him, even though it's the same things Mike's (Sherman) been saying, might hit home with some guys."
By Chris Havel
PackersNews.com
