I'm not sure that an athlete is prepared to be a role model. He has a lot of attention paid to him that he shouldn't have, and then the athletes tend to think of themselves as better than they are.
Interpretation
Athletes may not be ready to handle the role of a role model due to the undue attention they receive.
Bobby Knight's quote reflects on the complexities of athlete celebrity and the expectations placed upon them as role models. He suggests that the extreme attention given to athletes can distort their self-perception, leading them to potentially overestimate their own significance and influence. This raises questions about the appropriateness of defining athletes as role models when their professional achievements may not necessarily correlate with character or moral leadership.
In practice
Use this quote in a discussion about athlete responsibilities in schools.
My dad was a very quiet person, and unbelievably tough. But my grandmother gave me my first look at negative thinking to bring about positive results. When I was just a little guy, anytime I came to my grandmother and said I wish for this or that, Grandma would say, 'If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.'
Your biggest opponent isn't the other guy. It's human nature.
People want national championship banners. People want to talk about Indiana being competitive. How do we get there? We don't get there with milk and cookies.
When we're playing a good scoring center, we tell our team that it is not our defensive man's job to stop the center. It's the responsibility of our perimeter people to stop the ball from going inside.
Failure, to me, is not having the desire to try. Having the desire to try is in it own way success.
A coach should never be afraid to ask questions of anyone he could learn from.
No leader, however great, can long continue unless he wins battles. The battle decides all.
No man can become a great leader of men unless he has the milk of human kindness in his own heart, and leads by suggestion and kindness, rather than by force.
The purpose of an organization is to enable ordinary humans beings to do extraordinary things.
Like a human being, a company has to have an internal communication mechanism, a "nervous system", to coordinate its actions.
If you see players who hate practice, their coach isn't doing a very good job.
Presidents get to decide how their intelligence is served up to them, and it's the job of intelligence to adjust.
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