ON what was supposed to be a special day for Joe Lipa, the legendary coach got wind of the sobering news of the passing of his idol Bob Knight.
"A great loss for basketball," Lipa, who turned 80 on Thursday, says of the American coaching great who won three US NCAA championships with the Indiana Hoosiers and an Olympic gold medal with the Michael Jordan-led US team in the 1984 Games.
READ: Bob Knight, Hoosiers' combustible coaching genius, dies at 83
Knight was the single biggest influence in the career of Lipa, who has long admired his coaching genius as well as the principles Knight stood in the decades that he patrolled the sidelines. Knight died on Thursday at the age of 83.
"I learned a lot from him," says Lipa, pointing to Knight's motion offense and man-to-man defense which he says forever changed the basketball landscape.
His admiration for Knight, Lipa says, only grew seeing him work from up close during a week he spent in the Indiana campus along with other foreign coaches.
Perhaps because he was the most inquisitive in the group, Lipa says he got the chance not only to observe Knight conduct Hoosiers practice but was later given the rare honor of sitting on the Indiana bench during one game.
"Ako lang 'yung tanong ng tanong dahil 'yung iba di masyado marunong uminglish. Nakulitan siguro sa 'kin, kaya sinama n'ya rin ako sa practice minsan," Lipa says of Knight. "I was also asked to join one meeting where the starting five was chosen."
Lipa has built a legendary career of his own highlighted by the UP Maroons' first UAAP championship in 1986 and a bronze medal at the 1986 Asian Games in Seoul with an all-amateur team led by Allan Caidic, Samboy Lim, and Alvin Patrimonio. Yet 'The Nose' insists he never came close to even get a sniff of Knight's greatness.
"Mas mainit ang ulo sa akin non," he says laughing.
Lipa says he also hasn't seen any coach in Philippine basketball in the intervening years since his retirement that reminds him of Knight's coaching genius, but lists Tim Cone and Tab Baldwin as the two coaches he is most impressed with.
"You can't argue with success," he says of Cone, the owner of an all-time record 25 PBA championships including two grand slams as well as the Philippines' first Asian Games gold medal in over six decades.
"Tim and Tab actually, ang ganda nilang mag-adjust during games," Lipa continues. "Pareho sila magaling sa analysis at finding solutions [during a game]. Basketball, as you know, is all about game management."
Next Joe Lipa?
And will there ever be a next Joe Lipa?
He shook his head and says, "Wala pang malaki ang ilong," then laughs ever harder.
[Editor's note: Joe Lipa's recently released book Basketball 101 is now available in bookstores and online]
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