Knight cares more about not losing than he does winning. He wrote an entire book on “The Power of Negative Thinking.” His strategy was less about what his team could do to win, but more what it had to do to keep them from losing.

He sweats the small stuff and lets nothing go. It’s what makes him the fiery, grudge-holding, controversial man he is.

That’s why one stops for a second to question Knight laughing off a loss. Sure, it’s just hunting, but it’s something.

Then, there's the fact he spoke at Bloomington High School North on Thursday. He was open with the fans who love him and reciprocated that love back. Knight even endorsed a new IU men's basketball coach.

These are things Knight doesn’t do. Even just a few weeks ago, Knight told Dan Patrick on the radio he hoped the IU administrators who fired him were all dead, and for those who aren’t, he said “I hope the rest of them go.”

He will always be a man of contradictions. His entire relationship with Bloomington is paradoxical. He’s the man everyone wants to move past but still wants to embrace.

He wants to be embraced by them, too. He got choked up when fans stood for him Thursday. He had plans of retirement in Bloomington spent watching IU games. That dream ending didn’t happen. Instead, he was fired for violating IU's zero-tolerance policy with his violent behavior.

He thinks his dream ending was robbed from him, others think he threw it away. Regardless, his bitterness from losing that dream is why he can’t go back to IU.

Knight is 76 now. He’s getting older. He walks a little slower. He has his memory lapses. It’s natural. But Hammel says Knight isn’t fighting the inevitability of aging.

“I don’t see any signs of bitterness or resentment about it,” Hammel said. “Sometimes when he draws a blank on something, he will just laugh about it and want me to fill him in.”

Knight doesn’t have a choice in this one. Everybody loses to time.