During his Friday morning press conference, Patriots coach Bill Belichick honored Bob Knight, a longtime friend and legendary basketball coach who died Wednesday at age 83.

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“I had a good relationship with Coach Knight. Very sad, the last few years have been tough,” Belichick said. “I met coach Knight when I was probably under 10, known him my whole adult life. He and my dad were good friends and coach (Bill) Parcells, so I saw a lot of coach Knight. Learned a lot from him, enjoyed my time with him.

“Wonderful man, and obviously a great coach, up there in the big five in basketball. Mike (Krzyzewski) kind of in from the same tree with (Adolph) Rupp and (John) Wooden. Unfortunately, tough loss for coaching.”

Knight was among the most successful and controversial coaches in college basketball history. He won 902 career games between Army, Indiana and Texas Tech. He also led the United States men’s basketball team to Olympic gold in 1984.

Knight met Parcells in 1966, when Parcells was hired to be Army’s new linebackers coach and Knight took over as the school’s new head basketball coach. The two grew close and later became mentors to Belichick.

Earlier this year, Belichick revealed on Tom Brady’s SiriusXM podcast, “Let’s Go,” that he learned to criticize all players equally from Knight. During their legendary 20-year together, it became known that Belichick would berate Brady in team meetings, even as Brady was on a path to becoming the greatest quarterback of all time. Belichick said making an example of him was intentional.

“Where I got that from was Coach Knight, because Coach Knight told me that’s what he did with Michael Jordan on the Olympic team,” Belichick said. “He said, ‘Michael, I’m going to rip your (expletive) because I can’t rip some of those other guys without ripping you.’”

He later added: “Players, they’d always come back to me and say, ‘Hey, the first meeting Belichick got on Brady. I’m like, Christ, if he’s going to talk to Brady like that I’d better be straight. I know what’s going to happen to me.”