40 years ago this summer, legendary IU basketball coach Bob Knight was leading Team USA to Olympic gold in Los Angeles.
On his team was guard Steve Alford, who had just completed his freshman season under Knight at Indiana.
Among Alford’s roles on the team was to be the guy who could help future NBA stars like Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing and Chris Mullin understand Knight’s approach, and the best practices to succeed under his coaching style.
Knight had fun with the team, especially Jordan. Knight once struggled to find flaws in one of Jordan’s better first half performances, and came up with this critique he later retold through the years.
“Mike, when the hell are you going to set a screen?” Knight yelled. “All you’re doing is rebounding, passing and scoring. Dammit, screen somebody out here!”
Knight’s admiration for Jordan would grow to the point where he told the owner of the Portland Trail Blazers he should draft Jordan to play center if that was their position of biggest need.
Led by the then 21-year-old Jordan, Knight and Team USA went 8-0 in Los Angeles. They beat Spain by 25 in the gold medal game. They were rarely tested.
But there were intense moments. Sam Perkins, a member of the team and former Jordan teammate at North Carolina, has said Knight once brought Jordan to tears. after a poor performance.
That’s where guys like Alford came in.
Alford had a full year of playing for Knight under his belt. He understood Knight’s methodologies better than anyone else around Team USA in 1984. So much so that at least on one occasion he appeared to be prophetic.
Then Georgia guard and future Indiana Pacer Vern Fleming asked Alford what to expect from Knight before one of the earlier practice sessions as the team seemed to be finding a groove.
In a lengthy profile on the 1984 team, Alford retold a story that had his former teammate mesmerized at the time.
Fleming came to me before (the fourth) practice day, Alford recounted. He said, “Hey, what’s (Knight) expecting today? We’ve been really good.” I said, “I think coach will kick us out of practice today.” He said, “What? Why would he kick us out of practice? We’ve been great.” I said, “Because coach never wants to let the players relax mentally. He knows we probably physically need a day off. But on the day off, he wants us to think he’s mad and upset with what we’re doing so that we stay fresh mentally for the next day. I think we’ll have one or two drills, and then he’ll do something to kick us out.”
We went through two drills, coach punted a ball and said, “Get out, (go to the) locker room!” Vern thought he’d seen a ghost, and I didn’t know I was going to be a prophet on that day, but then we got in the locker room, and everybody started undressing. I said, “Nope. That’s not what happens because when you get kicked out, you have to sit at your locker and wait for coach to come in and tell us why.” Vern just sat there, staring through me, like, “I can’t believe that just happened.”
There are several more tales from the 1984 Olympic team involving Knight including audio accounts you can find in the USA Today piece.
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