Bobby Knight Kept Ruining The Final Play In 'Blue Chips', Costing Them $1,000/Hour Because He Felt He Was Being Fucked With

[The Athletic] – Marques Johnson: “Everything was set. Fans were buzzing. We already orchestrated how we were going to do it. A backscreen from Mitchell Butler on Shaq, and Penny Hardaway was going to throw a lob and Shaq would win it.”

Hurley: “This was after the game so we kind of wanted to get out of there. We’re in the huddle and Coach just says: ‘Don’t let them freaking get it.’ He told us to grab Shaq on the lob. No one was going to disobey an order from The General.”

Shelton: “I thought it was pretty obnoxious, to be honest. I mean, we’re on a clock. It’s expensive to shoot. Every hour lost is about $1,000.”

Johnson: “Friedkin yells, ‘What the hell’s going on?’ Bobby walked up and said, ‘You guys have been fucking with me this whole movie, now I got a chance to fuck with you.’ Now I’ll let you run your play.’”

I love Blue Chips. One of the best sports, nay, just best movies of all time. It’s perfect, especially with what’s going on in the world of college hoops right now. So I absolutely loved this brief oral history on it and suggest checking it out.

But, is there anything less surprising than Bobby Knight being a complete asshole when filming? This is the play:

Now you’re telling me this guy was a dick during filming it?

I can just picture it. Knight getting this crew of guys – mostly his old players plus Bobby Hurley all together and just screaming to foul. I mean that’s just being a coach. I can’t fault him there. You want to win. You don’t want to roll over and sacrifice a game for the sake of Hollywood.

Also, what a power move here by Knight:

Hurley recently had signed a sneaker deal with ITZ — In The Zone — and he had hoped to wear the shoes during filming. Shortly upon arrival, he found out otherwise. “Coach Knight wasn’t having that,” Hurley said. “He said, ‘Find Hurley a pair of Adidas.”’

I do need to know exactly how much money he cost the movie by ruining the final play. Either way, Western University got the win and that’s all that matters.