Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports is reporting that Rick Pitino has emerged as a candidate for the vacant Sacramento Kings’ head coaching job.
That might explain some of the rumors going around Louisville today that Pitino was about to resign as U of L’s coach, a rumor refuted by C.L. Brown of the Courier-Journal.
Excerpt from Yahoo:
Pitino has communicated his interest in a possible NBA return to Kings ownership, sources say, and one league official describes the Maloof family as “intrigued.”
It is believed that Pitino intermediaries initiated the contact. No Kings offer is imminent and so far conversations have been exploratory in nature.
Sources caution that there are significant hurdles that need to be cleared before Pitino could become Sacramento’s coach, but say for a variety of reasons Pitino is feeling the pull of the pros again.
Kings co-owner Gavin Maloof denied that the Kings have spoken with Pitino, but several NCAA and NBA sources strongly insist that Pitino has talked by phone with at least one member of the family and has been a major topic of discussion within the organization the past week.
There were rumors during the season that Pitino was interested in the coaching vacancy at Arizona. Given the unflattering headlines made at season’s end thanks to the “extortion” episode, it isn’t shocking that Pitino might be exploring other opportunities. It doesn’t mean that Rick is leaving Louisville, however.
Ok, first off I am a huge UK fan but I still have a soft spot for Rick because when I first started watching UK basketball hard corely I was about 8 and Slick Rick was the coach. But with all that said, I think Slick Rick is feeling the heat off of UK and Calipari. I think its one of those things were the state is not big enough for the both of them and he knows he cant compete with Calipari now that he is at UK so he is making plans to skip town. LOL!!! Go Cats and Go Coach Cal!!!!!
Run Ricky Run!
Boy, I hope this isn’t so! I want U of K , U of L, WKY, all to become leaders; nation wide. Nothing would be better than to have an all KY final four.
Has coach Cal found Spalding’s donuts yet? Winchester Rd Best in the world!
Is Rick scared of the competition with Calipari or is he bolting to escape the extortion deal? Either way, it makes him a coward.
I will be really ticked off if he heads out of town because now that the Cats are destined to be great again, one of the benefits was having this great rivalry back.
Why would he leave a good thing at U of L. It’s not like he’s in his 40s any more. I am UK alum and don’t really like the ‘Ville, but come Pitino, get a grip. Do you remember what you did to my beloved Celtics!?!?
Wow, did I have enough typos in that previous post?
Hypothetically, who would be candidates for the U of L job were Pitino to leave?