A knight in purgatory. (Here Below).

JUST WHEN WE WERE beginning to believe that it was possible to live through a basketball season without an eruption from Mount Knight, we learned that ESPN was releasing a film based on A Season on the Brink -- John Feinstein's blow-by-blow account of the 1985-86 season at Indiana University.

The book had created a sensation by its merciless reportage of every foul word and temper tantrum spoken or thrown by Knight during the season. It was all too vile to be believed, but since the author had never been shot or sued, it apparently was true.

Both the author and his "hero" went on to bigger things over the next five years, but the shine was off the "hero." If it ever distracted him, he never gave notice. He remained Bob Knight -- profane, trigger-tempered, vulgar, unmanageable.

And when all that stuff hit the fan in 2000, the hero's 29-year romance with Indiana was over. The song was ended, but the malady lingered on. Until suddenly, on March 10, 2002, ESPN released "A Season on the Brink." It was another Knight to be remembered. There he was in all his unbelievable vulgarity.

Was the movie necessary? No. Why open a can of worms all over again? The film simply offered two hours of foul-mouthed tirades that would have gotten Knight fired in ten seconds -- if he hadn't been responsible for selling millions of dollars worth of tickets and university prestige.

The best of all the remarks about the "hero" of "A Season on the Brink" was uttered by the great actor who played him in the film, Brian Dennehy:

"Bob Knight is a winner, but he carries a china shop around with him that he has to periodically smash to pieces.