Upon retiring from baseball, Knight became an ESPN broadcaster. He accepted his first coaching job with the Reds in . Early in the season, Reds owner Marge Schott announced that Knight would replace Davey Johnson as manager of the Reds in regardless of how the Reds did. Schott and Johnson had never gotten along, and relations between the two had deteriorated to the point that she almost fired Johnson after the season. However, the Reds were doing so well under Johnson (they led the National League Central at the time of the 1994 Major League Baseball strike and won the division in 1995) that she instead opted to name Knight as assistant manager, with the understanding that he would succeed Johnson in 1996.