Calipari opens up about Kentucky’s loss and why he’s not rushing to the NBA.
This time of the year, especially since John Calipari was hired at Kentucky in 2009, has been routine for speculating that Coach Cal would make a return to the NBA. For the time being, Calipari is focused on being his players’ “PR machine” as several of his current players are preparing to declare for the NBA Draft.
Still recovering from his team’s 81-74 loss to Wisconsin in the Final Four, Calipari shared on his official website his immediate feelings about the loss and feelings about the NBA:
“What I’m trying to do is laugh and smile and enjoy myself so I don’t cry, because it was devastating,” Coach Cal said. “I thought we were going 40-0. Never entered my mind that we would lose.”
On returning to the NBA because of feelings that he has something to prove:
“I don’t,” Calipari said. “I have one question, so you understand, and I went through some things last year, and I had a simple question for an owner: The impact I have on these young people, the impact to help change their families lives, the impact I have in the seat I’m in at Kentucky to move people in a positive way, can I have that in the NBA? Where do I get the satisfaction from? What do we do that has an impact on the community, has an impact on people, or am I just coaching to try to help you make more money and win a championship? Tell me how, because I’m at a stage in my life, that’s not what moves me.”
Calipari has experimented with some great talent in his time at Kentucky. He sounds so committed to the school and to the college game in general that it’s becoming harder to imagine Calipari going back to the NBA. He was just inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame and leads us to believe that he still has goals to reach at Kentucky. Clearly the NBA doesn’t have his best interest right now. Instead, Calipari’s mind is surely wrapped around how to bounce back from a near perfect season.
