Adam Zagoria covers basketball at all levels. He is the author of two books and an award-winning journalist whose articles have appeared in ESPN The Magazine, SLAM, Sheridan Hoops, Sports Illustrated, Basketball Times and in newspapers nationwide.
ATLANTA — Rick Pitino said his son, Richard Pitino, is more than ready to coach in the Big Ten at Minnesota even though he’s only been a head coach for one season at Florida International.
“I did not recommend Richard, Billy Donovan did,” Pitino said here at the Final Four. “But I put in a call and I said I would not second that recommendation if I didn’t think he could not only succeed but do great things. So you don’t want your son in that situation, you want him to take his time.
ATLANTA — In early May 1997, more than a month after Kentucky had lost to Arizona in overtime in the NCAA championship game at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis, Rick Pitino called his players together for a meeting.
He told them he would be leaving Kentucky in order to return to the NBA as the head coach and director of basketball operations for the Boston Celtics, accepting a contract reportedly worth $70 million over 10 years.
Pitino, who had previously served as both an assistant and head coach with the Knicks, pinned some of his decision on his expectation that the Celtics would land Tim Duncan in the NBA Draft lottery.
“I remember him meeting with the team,” former Louisville assistant and current Manhattan head coach Steve Masiello told SNY.tv.
“He actually asked the players. He said, ‘Hey, if you guys have any objection…’. We weren’t going to stand in his way. We understood. We wanted him to go. We loved coach. We knew it was a great opportunity for him and we knew the impact he left on us and meant to us. We thought it was going to be a really special thing for him.”