Story on Kevin Brown - basketball coach at Washington HS

[Da Coach]

Come on...you're suggesting that the one-time chair throwing incident, or the profanity he was heard using in a game against Lou Henson's Illini was equivalent to player abuse?
But in reality, you are making my point for me. Knight's abusive, self-destructive behavior issues date back to the 1970's. I think he is still wanted by police in Puerto Rico for assaulting a cop in 1979. Here are just some of his incidents of abusive behavior-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Knight#Criticism_and_controversy

Yet, despite all those well-known abusive and threatening incidents dating back to the early 1970's, and many more that were kept behind closed doors by the Indiana administration, Knight was never admonished or disciplined one single time until 2000, just a few months before he was fired.

Everyone knew for decades that Knight was abusive, and he had numerous run-ins with fans, media, players, opposingr coaches, team personnel, and others. But everyone at Indiana looked the other way or made excuses, because "he won games and graduated his players".

It was never an issue until the end of the final season (1999-2000) he was at Indiana. He had failed to advance past the second round of the NCAA Tournament for his last 6 seasons, and failed to advance past the 1st round in 4 of those 6 seasons. Indiana was used to winning championships, and when Knight was no longer winning or competing for championships, his behavior suddenly was no longer tolerable and became a national embarassment.

The "zero tolerance" policy happened in April, 2000. After several well-publicized embarrassing public incidents, allegations arose that he had choked a former player. This had been alleged for a couple years, but Knight denied it. Then in April, 2000, after Knight had coached what turned out to be his final game at IU, a video surfaced that showed the choking incident. Even then, the IU president only suspended him for 3 games and issued the "zero tolerance" policy, when any other coach in college basketball history would have been fired.

Then, just a few months later there was another incident on campus where he physically abused a student, and because he was under the "zero tolerance" policy, Knight was fired. So the warnings and the "zero tolerance" were not a longstanding policy as you seem to be trying to suggest. In fact, Indiana looked the other way for decades regarding Knight's well-known bad behavior, before they finally were forced to act due to the embarrassing bad publicity in April, 2000. And even then, if he had just kept winning championships, I doubt he would have been fired.

[wily coyote]

Irnonically Collin Dietz' parents home schooled him for a year and moved him back a class striclty so he could get more playing time at Washington. Now he is transferring to Metamora, according to my sources. Could be sour grapes.
With that said, we sat directly behind the Washington bench at the Pekin Holiday Tournament and listened to Brown berate his players the entire game. Never had one positive thing to say. No one was spared and he really came down on JJ Gudet that game. Complete jerk. From what we saw, it certainly bordered on abusive, but no one else from that program had ever complained, at least not publically. He is the Bobby Knight of local coaches.

Not 100% sure but pretty sure, this young man transferred from the Canton school district to play for Coach Brown. What's the old saying "Karma is a B-tch."

[tornado]

another article in the PJStar today on Kevin Brown...this time by Phil Luciano..

OK - everyone's entitled to their opinion, and I know that's what Luciano does for a living...

but you gotta read this column.....HOLY COW - nobody on God's green earth makes more of a cottage industry out of firing off ignorant insults, poking juvenile fun at others, and labeling people with truly offensive terms that he even has to later retract...
than Phil Luciano....


and yet, guess what he rips into Kevin Brown for?

Here it is...

"Seriously? “Tough love”? This is your definition of tough love? “(Expletive”) stupid”? And “short bus”?

...“(expletive) stupid” does not build character. The military aside, there is no need to tear a person down before building him up. There is no justifiable use of profanity to address another human being."

omg- get a life Phil - you do this exact same thing all the time...
you mock people, insult them, severely criticize whoever you choose and often use foul & offensive language in doing so....
...and I know behind closed doors and in private - there's a whole lot worse....
I am not defending insults and insensitive words - but it (and far worse) exists everywhere - even prime time TV and SNL - and people laugh at it all the time.

Your column and others at PJS use the terms "the moron who ruined graduation", "moron, thugs & loser in the same column", "fu**ing retard"


One other thing-
a thorough search of all the phrases like "retard" and "short bus" show NOBODY has ever used such insults EVER on this board.
HOWEVER - the same cannot be said about the message board run & sponsored BY the PJSTAR where those terms are thrown about as juvenile insults multiple dozens of times and even far worse ones as well. Phil - clean your own house before criticizing others..

[bradleyfan124]

Ok here is my 2 cents. A Coach needs to be objective not subjective. You criticize to improve a specific thing about a person not vent at him or her because they did not live up to expectations. You lead by the carrot not the stick.

[Da Coach]

Ok here is my 2 cents. A Coach needs to be objective not subjective. You criticize to improve a specific thing about a person not vent at him or her because they did not live up to expectations. You lead by the carrot not the stick.

I agree with you 100%, and that is how I'd like to see all coaches act. But we all see that there are people in the coaching profession who become successful doing things the opposite way. There are many example that I won't bother to list here, except to point out that even the coach formerly at Wisconsin-Green Bay was reprimanded after being accused of berating of players.

[tornado]

Issue is solved, the Washington School Board has made their decision but few details made public

the PJS reports he will be retained but "will be given the opportunity to remediate these issues"

which I guarantee you means a slap on the wrist, apologize to those who whin-ed the loudest and attend sensitivity training

http://www.pjstar.com/sports/20170511/washington-coach-kevin-brown-retained-with-remediation?rssfeed=true&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social

[basketball nut]

another article in the PJStar today on Kevin Brown...this time by Phil Luciano..

OK - everyone's entitled to their opinion, and I know that's what Luciano does for a living...

but you gotta read this column.....HOLY COW - nobody on God's green earth makes more of a cottage industry out of firing off ignorant insults, poking juvenile fun at others, and labeling people with truly offensive terms that he even has to later retract...
than Phil Luciano....


and yet, guess what he rips into Kevin Brown for?

Here it is...

"Seriously? ???Tough love???? This is your definition of tough love? ???(Expletive???) stupid???? And ???short bus????

...???(expletive) stupid??? does not build character. The military aside, there is no need to tear a person down before building him up. There is no justifiable use of profanity to address another human being."

omg- get a life Phil - you do this exact same thing all the time...
you mock people, insult them, severely criticize whoever you choose and often use foul & offensive language in doing so....
...and I know behind closed doors and in private - there's a whole lot worse....
I am not defending insults and insensitive words - but it (and far worse) exists everywhere - even prime time TV and SNL - and people laugh at it all the time.

Your column and others at PJS use the terms "the moron who ruined graduation", "moron, thugs & loser in the same column", "fu**ing retard"


One other thing-
a thorough search of all the phrases like "retard" and "short bus" show NOBODY has ever used such insults EVER on this board.
HOWEVER - the same cannot be said about the message board run & sponsored BY the PJSTAR where those terms are thrown about as juvenile insults multiple dozens of times and even far worse ones as well. Phil - clean your own house before criticizing others..

Very well said, Phil sounds like another person that on at least one occasion sat in the corner sucking his thumb because he had someone yell at him and possibly call him a name. Oh that's right Phil seems to do that very thing quite a bit himself.
Children today are pampered way to much.
As one former, successful, coach said, we would have been fired on the first day of practice with the kids and parents that are out there today.

[basketball nut]

Ok here is my 2 cents. A Coach needs to be objective not subjective. You criticize to improve a specific thing about a person not vent at him or her because they did not live up to expectations. You lead by the carrot not the stick.

I would like you to name any successful coach that acts this way. You will find a team that will not win many games

[bradleyfan124]

I would like you to name any successful coach that acts this way. You will find a team that will not win many games

I know of one local soccer coach since retired that was a master at motivation. Wayne Miller. Don't misinterpret pampering for motivation. Scold them when they do wrong. Give them accolades when they do right. It is called reinforcement. With negative reinforcement there has to be positive reinforcement. What do you get with all negative reinforcement?
Let me add one more name: Phil Jackson. master motivator, never screamed. Let you know when you did something wrong but they knew they had done wrong

[Chico]

Wait until you get out into the real world kiddies. Mommy and daddy won't always be around to complain when you get yelled at.

[Buesch N Chips]

I would like you to name any successful coach that acts this way. You will find a team that will not win many games

Tony Dungy?

[bradleyfan124]

Joe Stowell.

[bradleyfan124]

John Calipari, Bill Self....oh no... they hand out money for positive reinforcement..my mistake

[Deadguy35]

I know of one local soccer coach since retired that was a master at motivation. Wayne Miller. Don't misinterpret pampering for motivation. Scold them when they do wrong. Give them accolades when they do right. It is called reinforcement. With negative reinforcement there has to be positive reinforcement. What do you get with all negative reinforcement?
Let me add one more name: Phil Jackson. master motivator, never screamed. Let you know when you did something wrong but they knew they had done wrong

Totally agree with this. Emotional abuse is a lazy way of motivating people. Anyone can yell and scream in order to get results from people. The truly great coaches/motivators can get the most out of people without having to resort to such tactics.

Some kids do need discipline. As a coach/educator it is your job and responsibility to read those situations and act appropriately on a case by case basis. Some coaches are just too lazy or incompetent to do that.

That being said, the board didn't find enough here to justify firing Brown so everyone involved should just move on.

[Deadguy35]

Wait until you get out into the real world kiddies. Mommy and daddy won't always be around to complain when you get yelled at.

I'm not sure what you mean? There are entire departments in work environments that deal with behavior like this (HR). These are professional environments where emotional abuse is generally not tolerated.

If you're dealing with emotional abuse on a personal level, you can do things about that as well (get divorced, move, turn off the computer, etc.).

As an adult you do have more freedom in terms of controlling your environment. As a kid you are just being led around by your parents. That doesn't mean these kids can't adapt to the real world.