By Keith Taylor
Kentucky Today
Coaching rumors never stop and the wheel was churning heavily Thursday night when a report surfaced that Kentucky coach John Calipari had an interest concerning a front office opening in the New York Knicks’ organization.
The Knicks are looking for a president of operations after Phil Jackson stepped down earlier this week. Although Calipari reportedly reached out to New York through other sources, it’s not known whether or not the report is serious enough to gain traction.
It’s no surprise a coach of Calipari’s stature would be intrigued by the thought of leading an entire NBA franchise. Of course rumors aren’t fact until proven otherwise. At the moment, Calipari, who is in Cairo, Egypt with the U19 USA Men’s Basketball Team, is the coach at Kentucky and he intends to keep it that way.
Calipari was caught off guard by the rumor Friday morning and issued a tweet denying any interest in the opening.
“Even in Egypt, I can’t escape the rumors,” Calipari said in a tweet. “Are you kidding me? It’s 5 (a.m.) in the morning here and this is what I wake up to? … NO ONE has contacted the Knicks on my behalf. I am the coach at Kentucky and will be for a long time.”
Calipari coached the New Jersey Nets for three seasons (1996-99) before bolting back to the college ranks, where he has been for the past 17 years, including the last eight at Kentucky and has been highly successful — four Final Fours and the 2012 National Championship.
College coaches making the jump to the next level is nothing new. Some succeed, others fail and land back on the college scene. Rick Pitino tried it with the Boston Celtics following an eight-year stint at Kentucky that concluded with a national championship and national runner-up finish.
Much like Calipari, Pitino’s stay in the NBA was short-lived and he returned to college coaching at Louisville in 2001 and has been there ever since.
Others seem to find a niche at the next level after a successful career in the college ranks. Following a 21-year stay as a college coach at Marshall and a 19-year stint at Florida, which included a pair of national championships at a so-called football school, Billy Donovan took over at Oklahoma City and has compiled a 102-62 mark in two seasons. He led the Thunder to the conference finals a year ago and did a decent job this season without superstar Michael Westbrook.
Brad Stevens, formerly of Butler, has won 101 games in the past two years and guided the Celtics to the conference finals this past season. Stevens was hired by former Celtics star Danny Ainge, who has proven to be a better NBA executive than coach at the professional level.
Ainge coached the Phoenix Suns from 1996-2000 and failed reach the same heights he achieved as a player at Boston, Portland and Phoenix.
Recent talk has centered around the NBA possibly changing its one-and-done rule and using the college baseball model, which gives high school athletes the choice to either turn pro or enroll in college for three seasons. Earlier this week, Calipari voiced his support for such a possible change, as long as the NBA provides a fair salary for those players who decide to skip college and make the jump straight to the NBA.
“I’m good with the baseball rule, as long as they’re going directly to the NBA, they’re paying them what they deserve to be paid, and then it’s on them to look after these kids and give them a gap year if they think they can do that in the NBA,” Calipari said earlier this week.
Past history suggests that Calipari is perfectly happy at Kentucky, where he signed a two-year extension in March that increases his salary to $8 million per season after earning $7.75 million next year. As indicated in his tweet thousands of miles away from home, Calipari isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
Keith Taylor is sports editor for Kentucky Today. He can be reached at keith.taylor@Kentuckytoday.com.
Too bad. I was hoping that he would leave and UK could get back to recruiting STUDENT athletes instead of filling up the NBA.