Knight’s Behavior and Good Manners

* Re “Please Just Call Me ‘Mister,’ ” Voices, Sept. 30: Bill Stamps yearns for the good old days when a coach such as Bobby Knight could teach a lesson in etiquette to a kid without being fired. Who is Knight to teach manners to anybody? The same Bobby Knight who threw a chair into the wheelchair-accessible portion of the stands, or was fined $10,000 for cursing out a NCAA referee, or the one who threw an object that shattered a mirror and sprayed glass over the desk of a female assistant in the athletic director’s office? Since when is it mannerly to grab somebody’s arm while making a point?

For more than 20 years his behavior was justified on the grounds that he was a winning coach, so who could fault his behavior? Am I the only one cynical enough to believe that the real reason he was fired was that he was no longer winning (hadn’t had a team advance beyond the second round in NCAA finals for three years) and support for his insufferable behavior evaporated into the wind?

BETTY C. DUCKMAN

Long Beach

* Stamps is right on the mark with his comments. Knight is an almost comical aberration, but what should be of greater concern is the increasing number of undisciplined, disrespectful young people with parents who support their antics.

BOB WHITE

Manhattan Beach