Bob Knight, Bill Parcells & Tony La Russa in SportsCenter’s “Sunday Conversation”

March 26, 2008 -- ESPN will present a unique “Sunday Conversation” this week when three coaching icons – and friends – discuss a variety of topics including their friendships, coaching philosophies and how players have changed over the years, in a pair of segments on the March 30, 10:30 a.m. and 11 p.m. ET SportsCenters.

Bill Parcells and Tony La Russa each sat down with Bob Knight this week in Jupiter, Fla., the Spring Training home of La Russa’s St. Louis Cardinals. Rece Davis moderates the two segments, with separate portions of the Knight / Parcells conversation also running on NFL Live (today 4 p.m. ESPN) and Outside the Lines (Friday 3:30 p.m. ESPN), and part of the Knight / La Russa conversation running on Baseball Tonight (Thursday 4 p.m., ESPN2).

Knight has been to nearly every Spring Training run by La Russa since 1988, and was basketball coach at Army in the late 1960’s when Parcells was linebackers coach there.

From the Knight, Parcells, LaRussa “Sunday Conversation:”

“If you had two managers, and one had great knowledge of the game, X's and O's kind of guy, and the other guy had a better personality that was trusting and caring, this guy (the latter) wins all the time. That guy (the former), nobody follows where he goes.” – La Russa, on developing relationships with his players

“We (Parcells and I) used to, every Sunday afternoon in our basement, we'd basically watch the Packers play, because they were on television every Sunday. We'd talk about what coaches did, and there's nobody that I've known in my background in coaching that I saw become a better coach.” – Knight, on Parcells

“It's the peripheral people that are around him (today’s player) now. Basically, (it was) the player and his family when we first started, now its advisors and agents and consultants, and all these other peripheral people that have an influence on the player. And no matter what you try to get across to the player, there are contrary opinions being given to the player from other people.” -- Parcells, on difference between players now, and when he started coaching

“Now, you have a lot of players who are distracted by what their family, their friends, their agents are telling them: ‘Get your numbers, get your money.’ And the coach stands up and talks about team.” – LaRussa, on today’s players

“He was an impossible adversary. He was tough to defeat mentally. We fought it out quite a bit, but enjoyed doing it.” – Parcells, on playing against Knight in pick-up basketball games at West Point

“I've thrown away Giants clothes. I’ve thrown away Jets clothes. I've thrown away Patriots clothes. And now I wonder where the hell my Dolphins clothes are? -- Knight, on his long friendship with Parcells

“I want to retain his friendship, so I will never admit that he's a member of the media.” – LaRussa, on Knight at ESPN becoming a member of the media

Source: ESPN

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