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The Very Best of Enemies comes to with a huge contract, a banner recruiting class and a history with the state’s other big ego, | By Grant wahl

n the spring of 1988, during his first season coaching the , Rick Pitino made an emergency trip to his alma mater, the University of Massachu- setts. Pitino was on the search committee for a new UMass basketball coach, and he’d learned that athletic director Frank McInerney had soured at the last min- ute on the consensus choice—a 29-year-old ­assistant named John ­Calipari—after hearing concerns about Calipari from a prominent coach. “Look, people have enemies in this game,” Pitino says he told the AD. “You can’t change your mind because one coach calls and says these things. That means he’s worried. If I he’s worried about this guy, then that’s a good thing.” Photograph by ed reinke/ap Debate ensued. Finally, Pitino recalls, McInerney came around. “O.K., I’ll go with Calipari,” he said, “but we have one problem, Rick. I offered him a $63,000 salary. We only have [$58,000]. If you’ll write a check for $5,000, we’ll stick with our original decision.” “Fine, I’ll send it to you,” said Pitino. “No,” said McInerney, whose department was blue heaven After four seasons without strapped for cash. “I have to have it now.” These even a Sweet 16 appearance, days Pitino can’t help but laugh as he tells the story. Kentucky fans—including 23,500 at the first “The guy wouldn’t let me out of the meeting until practice—have hailed I wrote the check!” Calipari as a savior.

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Funny how the world works. More than new team, a new coaching staff, a Pitino paused. He knew Calipari wasn’t refusing to continue playing Memphis after parallel career arcs: runaway success in sur- two decades later Calipari is the highest-paid new style. All of it’s different.” asking for his approval; knew, in fact, that Louisville joined the Big East. prising places (Pitino at Providence, Calipari coach in college basketball, freshly hired at Well, not all of it. When junior Calipari was heading to Lexington no mat- These days Calipari is trying to play at UMass), humbling NBA failure (Pitino Kentucky for eight years and $31.65 million, forward Patrick Patterson passed ter what he said. The two men are not close. down any animosity. Yes, he avoided tak- with the Celtics, Calipari with the Nets) and and tasked with restoring its championship up the NBA draft and returned to The last time they had dinner together was ing his assigned seat next to Pitino at June’s then triumphant college career revivals. tradition. Along with a reputation that’s equal Lexington, Calipari asked him why. a year and a half ago, at the LeBron James NBA draft, but Calipari claims he needed What’s more, the reputations of both parts outlier, outsider and outlaw, Calipari Simple, Patterson replied. He had summer camp in Akron, and even that was to jump up to congratulate ’s coaches took major hits during the sum- comes in with enormous expectations, a high- never played in the NCAA tourna- a big-table affair. When Calipari and Pitino family. (“I couldn’t do that from where Rick mer. In August the married Pitino admit- flying ­offense (the dribble-drive motion) and ment; he was on track to graduate shared the stage at a charity fund-raiser in was sitting,” Calipari argues, and then ted that in 2003 he had engaged in con- a powerhouse freshman class, led by point with a communications degree in Louisville last month, witnesses described a adds, “I waved to him!”) And yes, while sensual sex in a Louisville restaurant with guard , the country’s top recruit. three years; and he knew that at palpable chill in the air. In Calipari’s mind, hailing Kentucky’s history of successful a woman, Karen Sypher, who pleaded not The response among Kentucky fans, whose 6' 9" his NBA future depends on his though, the conversation with Pitino needed coaches at Big Blue Madness, Calipari cited guilty in May to felony charges of attempt- team hasn’t reached the NCAA tournament’s ability to develop a floor game—the to happen. “To me it was Camelot,” Pitino , Hall and Smith but some- ing to extort­ $10 million from him. As for second weekend since 2005, has been seis- kind that’s the hallmark of Calipari’s finally told him of his time in Lexington. “I how neglected to mention Pitino.­ Calipari Calipari, he became the first coach in col- mic. Wildcats backers filled nearly 500 tents dribble-drive motion attack. “He coached there for eight years, and I never claims that was done to prevent a cascade lege history to preside over two vacated camping out for as many as three days just wants all his players to be able to had a bad day on the job.” of boos. “People want to act like we hate Final Four appearances when the NCAA to snag tickets for the first practice, which handle the ball like a ,” During Calipari’s meteoric rise at UMass, each other,” Calipari says, “but I don’t hate wiped all of Memphis’s wins in 2007–08 sold out 23,500-seat . For the says Patterson. “I’m trying to adjust as he validated Pitino’s original endorsement, from the record books (and placed the school past seven months, in the wake of Billy Gil- from posting up to facing up.” Calipari seldom missed a chance to thank him on three years’ probation), a fate similar to lispie’s two-year reign of error, Calipari has Yet even with Patterson, Ken- for the opportunity, while Pitino called the Calipari brings UMass’s after he left Amherst. crisscrossed the commonwealth, spreading tucky was only an NIT team last program’s climb from irrelevance to a No. 1 In his defense, Calipari notes that he the message of change like a hybrid of Ba- season. If the Wildcats are going to ranking “the greatest building job in college a reputation wasn’t singled out for wrongdoing in either rack Obama and professor Harold Hill. All make the Final Four, the onus will basketball history.” But the relationship grew case, that the Memphis ruling is under ap- of which has been care- rebuilding be on a potentially historic fresh- icy over the years as they competed head- that’s equal peal and that he raised the graduation rates fully monitored down man class, which includes three to-head, first in the college game (in which at both UMass and Memphis. But while he the road in Louisville The 6' 11" Cousins likely first-year starters: ­DeMarcus Kentucky beat UMass in the ’96 national parts outlier, admits that his reputation has been tar- by Pitino, the coach who (15) originally Cousins, a mountainous 6' 11" for- semifinals), then in the NBA (where Pitino’s nished, he won’t promise that something committed to rescued Kentucky from Memphis but ward from Mobile, who originally Celtics split six games against Calipari’s Nets) outsider similar won’t happen at Kentucky. “I sit here the depths of probation in followed Calipari committed to play for Calipari and once again at the college level (where and want to tell you that it won’t,” he says. the 1990s, led the school to Lexington. at Memphis; , a jet- Pitino’s Louisville and Calipari’s Memphis and outlaw. “I would hope that we’re recruiting the right to the 1996 national title propelled­ guard from Birming- kind of kids and that we and returned (to the ham who may be Kentucky’s best all do our jobs and there everlasting consterna- shooter; and the jewel of Calipari’s won’t be any issues. We tion of Wildcats fans) to Kids, Wall, a 6' 4" point guard from run a class program, take over the archrival Cardinals in 2001. Raleigh whose length, speed and vision strained we do things right, but When the Kentucky job came open last combine to make him the projected top pick relationship there are times when If Kentucky is to Pitino (far left) March, Pitino campaigned publicly for the in the 2010 NBA draft. helped launch things happen, not just candidacies of Oklahoma State’s make the Final Yet for all the excitement among Wild- Calipari’s career but in this program but in and Arkansas’s , two coaches cats fans, there is only one game they really now has to any program.” Perhaps, who had played for Pitino in Lexington. But Four, the onus want to talk about. On Jan. 2 Kentucky battle him for but that isn’t likely to it was impossible to escape another conclu- will play Louisville at Rupp Arena. Or, as state supremacy. quiet the schadenfreude sion, one that goes back to what Pitino said will be on a it’s seen in the commonwealth, Calipari crowd. Sample joke: What do you call the in that UMass conference room in 1988: If will meet Pitino. “I’ve been to 20 cities in new reality show featuring the Kentucky there was one coach in America who worried possibly historic the state of Kentucky,” Calipari says. “I’ve coach and his main player rotation? John Pitino the most, it was John Calipari. been everywhere. And all I can tell you is: and Vacate Plus Eight. freshman class. That is a big game. In Hazard I said to a Then again, those aren’t Calipari’s con- n June 2, the night before Calipari crowd, ‘If we lose to Louisville by 15 and stituents. For all the comparisons to Pitino, was to leave for a weeklong trip to That’s when I had to remind everybody that still win the national title, will you be all met regularly in Conference USA before the him at all. I respect him as a coach, and I Calipari has always been different in one O China, a post on his Twitter page I have a huge dog in our backyard.” right?’ And there are people who said, ‘No, Cardinals moved to the Big East in 2005). respect how hard his teams play.” enormous regard. He was an outsider, the said that he planned to attend Mass the next Calipari is clearly enjoying his outsized it won’t be all right!’ ” They have faced each other 19 times— Truth be told, the tension between the two coach who ran lower-tier outfits (UMass, the day at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in . popularity, signing thousands of copies of his Pitino winning 11, Calipari eight—while may result from their similarities. Soon after Nets, Memphis) while Pitino coached the blue Usually Calipari goes to Mass early in the new book, Bounce Back, all across Kentucky. efore Calipari accepted the Ken- producing the kind of dustups you might they met, in 1977, at the Five-Star camp in bloods (the Knicks, Kentucky, the Celtics). Not morning, but this time he arrived at noon. On But it doesn’t take Alan Greenspan to know tucky job last spring, he spoke over ­expect from two fiery coaches. In 2003 Pittsburgh—Pitino was an assistant at Syra- anymore. For the first time Calipari has the his way out afterward, a man in a Kentucky that Wildcats supporters give new meaning B the phone with several former ­Pitino thought his rival was trying to in- cuse, Calipari a teenage camper—camp boss institutional muscle of Kentucky basketball shirt stopped him. “I just wanted to wish you to the term irrational exuberance, with the Wildcats coaches: Joe B. Hall, Eddie Sut- fluence referees through the media, and started calling Calipari to match his talents as a recruiter and coach. well in China,” he told the coach. Calipari was impatience to match. Asked how long the ton, and—in a 10-­minute call he ripped Calipari, saying, “When people “the next Pitino.” Calipari got the nickname is in his corner—for now, at

flabbergasted—and a little concerned. “How Big Blue faithful will give him to win big, packed with meaning—Pitino. “I’m thinking bob rosato start talking about the officials, you know Little Ricky at UMass, and the slick-haired, least—and if Calipari wins big in Lexington, did he know I was coming at noon?” he asks. Calipari doesn’t hesitate. “This year,” he said about taking this job,” Calipari told him. they have some psychological problems.” Armani-wrapped, Italian-American sideline he’ll do more than restore an iconic brand.

“He had to have waited there all morning. during the first week of practice. “But it’s a “What do you think?” bobrosato (2) For his part Calipari called out Pitino for stompers have since followed remarkably He’ll out-Pitino Rick Pitino. ±

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