John Calipari Cares A Lot

John Calipari's public persona is so slickly televangelistic that it can't possibly be real. All his hyper-sincere talk about putting players first and the importance of teaching them to work as a collective is probably rooted in genuine belief, but it still plays like a commercial for him and his program.

In that sense, it's tough to trust what Calipari says because, no matter how convincing or correct he might be, there is always a sense he's trying to sell you something. The late Jerry Tarkanian had a pro-athlete philosophy, too, but he didn't waste breath trying to frame his application of it as a purely selfless enterprise. Calipari would be seem a lot less slimy if he adopted Tark's tack and periodically copped to looking out for number one.

Anyway, he doesn't have to—it is no secret that John Calipari Corp isn't a non-profit. He signed a seven-year, $52 million contract extension with Kentucky last June, after a prolonged flirtation with the NBA that seemed based less in a desire to actually leave college ball than designed to drive up his price. The reports of Calipari leaving to coach the Knicks or Cavs or Nets over the years have been of the sources say variety, and it's eminently reasonable to assume those sources have been agents, power brokers, and various other hangers-on who benefit in one fashion or another whenever the coach gets a raise or his stature rises in some immeasurable but meaningful way. These stories have also given Calipari regular opportunities to reiterate his commitment to Kentucky, to say he's got the best job in the world, to reassure everyone that he's not going anywhere.

But why, at this point, do those NBA rumors persist? What else can Calipari leverage from his employer? A little more money, perhaps, and maybe that's reason enough, but Kentucky can't give him more institutional control or better resources than they're already providing. The control is already total, the workout facilities and locker rooms are state-of-the-art, Calipari is permitted to recruit whoever he wants and conduct himself as he sees fit. And he has been absurdly successful.

Which suggests that maybe the scuttlebutt hasn't always been bullshit. Or, more accurately, it has been bullshit with truth at its core. It's not implausible that Calipari "desperately wants" another shot at the NBA, if you look at his career a certain way. Going 72-and-112 over three seasons with the Nets is the lone significant failure of his nearly three decades as a head coach. In New Jersey, he was young and obviously in over his head, ill-suited to coaching professional players because—like his contemporary Rick Pitino during his disastrous stint in Boston—Calipari did not then understand why people who were only nominally his employees weren't hanging on his every word, why half his directives went ignored. Most of the best college basketball coaches are control freaks, but that shit doesn't fly with grown millionaires on guaranteed contracts. Calipari learned that lesson one exasperated look from his players at a time.

Perhaps now, he would be a better pro coach. It's also conceivable he would get the kind of front office power he didn't have during his first NBA go-round, considering the trend of big-name skippers being handed dual head coach/team president roles. (For what it's worth, Calipari supposedly turned down that exact job when the Cavs offered it to him last year.) At this point, Calipari has a relationship with damn near half the league, in part because you could build a great and extremely deep NBA roster out of the players he coached at Kentucky and Memphis. Calipari has more or less figured this college basketball thing out: sign the best talent, teach them how to play defense, get them to play hard, and let the chips fall where they may. At 56, he's running out of time to find a new challenge. A Nets return? That certainly qualifies as challenging.

As ever, what John Calipari wants is both clear and not. It depends upon the angle of approach. We can expect him to respond to the latest buzz about his possible departure with a smile that gives way to an irritated countenance. He will indignantly but politely let us know what he's focused on, which is these kids, right here, right now, trying to win a national championship. He will be telling a sort of truth. Whether it's the whole truth remains to be seen.