Unless you’ve been living under a rock during the past week, I’m sure you know the outspoken Indiana basketball coach, Bobby Knight, has been fired from his coaching job. I was thinking about Knight, his career and how the public feels about him when I started to realize he strongly resembles another public figure – one in the world of entertainment. Think about it – he’s got white hair, he loves to say things in interviews to get a rise out of critics and he is both strongly hated and loved by a lot of people. Who does that remind you of? That’s right – Eminem. If you think about what they represent, Eminem (Marshall Mathers) is the Bobby Knight of this generation. They are both devoted to saying what they want to say and doing what they want, despite all the criticism they receive. The similarities are quite striking. These two could possibly be related. Knight was under fire last spring for the choking of former player Neil Reid, and allegedly abusing other players. Coincidentally, Eminem was under fire for pulling a gun on a man he thought was hitting on his wife. He was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon. Assault with a weapon, abusing your players, what’s the difference? Knight was fired by his boss recently; Eminem has been sued by his mom – twice. Two people that are supposed to love and support them have instead crapped all over them. Another similarity between the two is they are almost always wearing the same clothing every time they appear in public – Knight in his red sweater or red shirt and Eminem in his white T-shirt or wife-beater. They have both publicly dissed people within their professions and caused public controversy. Knight has ripped on Iowa basketball coach Steve Alford and Eminem has ripped on, well, just about everyone in pop music. Eminem and Knight are both more famous for the negative contributions they make to their professions rather than the positive ones. Knight’s name climbs higher in notoriety every time he’s been mentioned on the news. And every time Eminem gets on the news for writing a nasty lyric about someone or getting publicly slammed for his beliefs, he sells more records. I think this one is helping Eminem more than Knight. Eminem and Bobby Knight are both geniuses. Knight’s coaching has earned him the label of one of college basketball’s best coaches as he has guided his team to numerous national titles. Eminem’s musical talent has thrust him high in the music industry, especially in rap. He has two platinum-selling albums and his current album sits at the number two position on the Billboard charts this week, having sold 6 million copies. Knight, like any good coach, probably sees his players as his babies. Some of those babies have risen to become some of the NBA’s best players. Eminem’s babies are his songs, and a number of them have gone on to be number one singles, with one earning Best Video of the Year at this year’s MTV Video Music Awards. Knight has won Coach of the Year and Eminem has received awards for best new artist at numerous award shows. The similarities between these two could go on forever, but the fact is, Eminem and Bobby Knight have accomplished what they have because they have balls. They aren’t afraid to do what they want to do. The public loves to hate them and loves to love them, depending on who is asked. If these two men are in fact related, maybe Bobby Knight is actually Eminem’s long-lost father. In that case, who is the grandfather? How about the outspoken, white-haired “Survivor,” Rudy? Rudy, Bobby and Marshall. What a great family they would make.