Playing cards at Knight’s house, playing ball and meeting coaches
We would go to his house and play euchre with his son, Timmy, usually on Friday nights. I was just out of high school, in 1979 or 1980. I played (basketball) at Edgewood. I was the Monroe County leading scorer my senior year.
I was just a kid from Stinesville. I was on Cloud 9 when I got attention from that man.
I’m sure Coach knew a little bit about me. I got a letter asking me to try out at West Point. … I’m sure Coach Knight passed off my name to (Mike Krzyzewski). He was a first-year coach. I didn’t want to join the Army.
I went to Bobby Knight’s basketball camps all the time. Being in Bloomington as a kid, wanting to be a basketball player in the era of Bobby Knight, you couldn’t have been in a better location.
I remember running into him a couple of other times, later. In 1984, I got back to Bloomington and was at Big Wheel. In walked Coach. There were three guys behind him. He introduced me to Sam Perkins, Charles Barkley and Michael Jordan. That had to be April 1984. He told them, ‘If this kid was 6-5, I would cut all of you and use him.’ He was meeting someone else and said to me, ‘Keep an eye on these guys. I might need a couple of them in July.’
Berry Payton, Bloomington