Raptors Coach Raps Knight

Toronto Raptors coach Butch Carter depicts Bob Knight as a "self-serving coward" who maintains control through threats and once used a racial slur at a black player.

Knight, who coached Carter more than 20 years ago at Indiana, already is under investigation by the school for allegedly grabbing a player's throat during practice.

Carter also said Knight hurt his coaching career by refusing to provide a recommendation.

The remarks are in a book co-written by brother Cris, a Minnesota Vikings receiver. Excerpts from "Born to Believe," which goes on sale May 1, were published in Friday's National Post of Toronto.

A woman at Knight's office Friday said the coach was out of town.

According to Butch Carter, who was a team co-captain at Indiana in 1980, Knight stormed into the locker room after a practice and berated another player. He said he would end up like "all the rest of the niggers in Chicago, including your brothers."

"Knight felt he was at such a superior level that he could make a statement like that to a player in front of his teammates and he had no obligation to apologize to him or the rest of the black players. In effect - he was also talking to his two captains. Both of us came from families with many children."

Carter did not identify the player Knight supposedly slurred, but there was speculation it was Isiah Thomas, who is from Chicago. Thomas, however, denied that happened.

"I never heard coach use that word," Thomas said.

Knight told The Herald Times of Bloomington, "Nobody has ever heard me use that word."

The other Indiana captain was Mike Woodson, now an assistant coach with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

"I'm a little shocked that it's in a book because I never heard Knight use that word. This is a low blow," Woodson said.

Temple coach John Chaney, who is black and a longtime friend of Knight, said he never heard the Indiana coach use a racial slur.

"The people that hate not only Bobby Knight but hate, despise and find themselves jealous of Indiana's successes, find it's an opportunity to get every Butch Carter and some of the others that come out of the woodwork, black and white, that will go after a person like Bobby Knight," he said.

Carter said Knight "does not like educated, strong-willed blacks. He is the kind of man who implies a man should not stand up and be a man; should not have an intelligent opinion."

On Friday, Carter said that with the NBA plyoffs to start soon, this would "not be an appropriate time for me to further expound upon my experiences from 20 years ago."

Earlier this week, CNN/Sports Illustrated broadcast a videotape from an Indiana practice when Knight is shown grabbing the throat of a player. Neil Reed, who left Indiana in 1997, says he is that player.

Knight also was accused of choking a Bloomington man at a restaurant last summer. The prosecutor did not file charges, saying Knight had been provoked by the man's claim he overheard Knight make a racist remark during dinner.

Indiana president Myles Brand last month appointed two trustees to look into Reed's contention, with the investigation expected to be completed in June.

Indiana vice president Christopher Simpson said the university does not plan to investigate Carter's remarks.

In the book, Carter also said Knight violated the confidentiality of a former player, believed to be Quinn Buckner, by revealing intimate details during a locker-room talk. Carter did not identify that player except to say the disclosure occurred when he was a freshman and the other player was a Milwaukee Bucks rookie.

"I knew I was never going to trust this man with anything going on in my life. Not only was Knight clearly not a friend, he was a self-serving coward who masqueraded as a confidante," said Carter, who apparently fell out of favor when the coach learned he had used athletic department phones for more than $1,000 in long-distance calls.

Carter also said he didn't get a college coaching job because Knight discouraged the athletic director from hiring him.

"I think these people (like Knight) are cowards, who will do damage to others by their destructive words and underhanded actions. But people forgive their bullying behavior because they have power," Carter wrote.

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