Rick Pitino closes the book on basketball coaching career
In this Oct. 20, 2016, file photo, Louisville head basketball coach Rick Pitino reacts to a question during a press conference in Louisville, Ky. Credit: AP/Timothy D. Easley
Rick Pitino said on Wednesday that he will not pursue another coaching job in college basketball or the NBA. Speaking to Newsday at a hotel in midtown, the Hall of Fame coach and former star at St. Dominic High School was asked about a return to the sidelines and replied, "It is time to move on from coaching – I am turning the page.”
The ongoing FBI investigation into corruption in college basketball produced an indictment last September from the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York that implicated the Louisville program – among others – in a scheme that funneled money from Adidas to recruits. The school fired Pitino in October and he explained that he missed the game terribly during the 2017-18 season. Other schools were interested in him when the season finished.
Pitino said “there was one job that really interested me.” The school inquired to the NCAA as to whether Pitino faced discipline and was told that he wouldn’t be investigated until the feds came out with their findings.
“That’s when I said it was time to turn the page,” Pitino said. “You’ll miss it but you have to stop visualizing yourself on the sidelines and at practice. You have to move on.”
Pitino returned to New York for the Tuesday release of his new book, “Pitino: My Story.” In addition to making numerous television and radio appearances, he will be appearing at a 7 p.m. book signing on Thursday at Book Revue in Huntington.
The book is a look back at his entire career. However, it also is a vehicle for him to tell his side of the story in the two scandals that brought about his ouster.
The 2017 indictment details a Las Vegas meeting where Cardinals assistant coach Kenny Johnson and former NBA agent Christian Dawkins were part of a conversation about the adidas scheme and Pitino was mentioned. That came on the heels of the 2015 revelation that Louisville staffer Andre McGee threw parties with strippers for basketball players and recruits in the dormitories from 2010-14.
Pitino explains in the book that he knew nothing about either circumstance and said Wednesday, “I never used an illegal inducement to get a player to play for me [and)]I am very proud of that.”
Nevertheless, he concedes that these incidents happened while he was the head of the program and that he hired the people alleged to have done the misdeeds.
“I take full ownership in hiring them,” Pitino said. “I thought they’d do a great job for me, no different than Jeff Van Gundy when I hired him, no different than Billy Donovan when I hired him and gave him an opportunity. No different than when I hired [Manhattan coach] Steve Masiello. I gave everybody the same opportunities. I mentored them to do the right things. And one or two out of 30 did the wrong thing. I have to live with that and take ownership of that.”
Pitino called writing the book “a way for me to get some closure on my coaching career.” He said some of his family members counseled him against penning it, but added that his family was split about the idea. He said those who opposed it argued “the people who know you know I am not a cheat. . . . but the people who don’t know you will still think you cheated.
“I feel the truth needs to be told my way because no one knows the truth better than me.”
He also addresses the corrupting nature of shoe-company money in the book.
Pitino plans this season to do motivational speaking engagements with corporations and college programs and also put out a podcast. He also could consider a role in broadcasting if, as he said, it would be a format where "I could talk about the game in a way people would like to listen to.”
