BK was the sickest coach I got to know well as a teenager!
One mid-60's hoops summer, I ran into the imposing 24-year old college coach BK at five of the basketball camps I attended. BK is a well-known, much disgraced, but one of the winningest coaches of all time.
Known for coaching the fundamentals of great one-on-one D I admit that his wisdom worked for me subsequently in my college & pro careers, I can't lie. I guess I was sick too because I signed up for every clinic tht BK put on at all those hoops camps, every year. And I had the bruises, loose teeth & bloody lips to attest to his personal teaching methods. He'd just beat you up. But to his credit, BK didn't mind if you threw an elbow or two back at him.
But this coach was such a militaristic-styled, screaming, punching, chair-throwing, out & out nutbag sadist, that he couldn't hide it. He completely abused the campers at these well-known PA-NY-NJ-Long Island camps every year. For that whole summer, he beat up kid after kid, berating many right up in their faces. That was coach BK!
The camps had two-week long sessions. On the final days, the parents were invited to see what they had paid for their sons' hoops education. At one PA camp, BK went off on everyone for the "lack of guts & effort by many you campers. So you all gotta pay the price!" He was snarling, not even tring to hide his brand of insanity or contempt.
So BK stopped all the games, & lined up everyone around the perimeter of a court for a "drill." When he blew his whistle, everyone had to run to the other side of the court at once - all ages at the same time. Any kid who got knocked down had to run laps for the next half hour. All this in front of the parents?!? Hundreds of kids! The other coaches looked worried. BK was one sick mf!
Needless to say, the younger kids were flung down all over the court after BK's "drill." I saw at least half a dozen parents lead their kids away from this sadist's madness towards their cars, some openly cursing out this "great coach" to his face. One incensed dad had to be restrained from kicking BK's . It took many other coaches to hold this large, strong man back. It was famous coach Butch van breda Kolff who hated how BK had treated that his young son Jan (later a good coach too).
Though BK became revered for winning, & won over 900 games in a long career, he also crapped out at every stop after that, his true sick nature following him everywhere (like when he infamously choked out that poor kid NR with the Hoosiers). Indefensible behavior.
I secretly smiled for decades whenever he failed spectacularly, remembering BK's crazy brand of sadism at those camps. And his legacy is completely tainted because of how he abused his players. Hard to defend what he did to his college players everyday at every stop in his career. Of course, the "win freaks" always get all Machiavellian about his record. (That's why JC largely gets a pass too for his abusive style - though nothing like BK's.)
Now, most of us kids in those 60's days were accustomed to the abusive style & constant yelling of WWII era coaches - it was natural & most of us responded well to that approach. But BK? That was the sickest coach I ever met. Everyone was afraid of him.
However, I did learn how to aggressively use one-on-one D as an offensive weapon against opponents. I am grateful to BK for the time & knowledge he gave to me. But he would physically punish a young kid while he was teaching him. As I said, BK is one sick coach.
Father Demo
