Rick Pitino has declined a chance to return to his team in Greece and is hoping for another shot at the NBA, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
Pitino confirmed that he has turned down an offer from Panathinaikos after leading the team to the Greek Cup title while serving as both coach and president. He will spend the summer trying to land an NBA job, either as a coach, a player personnel specialist or an advisor.
Pitino, 66, spent two years as head coach of the Knicks in the 1980s, then returned to the NBA with the Celtics nearly a decade later. He won a division title in New York and took the team to the playoffs in both seasons, but was less successful in Boston, resigning during the 2000/01 season and citing the difficulty of handling both coaching and front office responsibilities. His career record as an NBA coach is 192-220.
He is best known for his success in college, where he took teams to seven Final Fours and won titles at Kentucky and Louisville. However, his championship with the Cardinals and two of his Final Fours were vacated in the wake of scandal, and the school fired him in 2018 after an FBI investigation into NCAA recruiting practices.
Suns!
Rick ain’t common’ through those doors anytime soon. I hope.
/ coming
Lakers will probably sign him as another “assistant” / “head coach in waiting”
Put some respeck on the Lakers name
Respect? Lakers? Don’t make me laugh!
Complete scum
This ain’t Boy Scouts….pitino can coach. Don’t know about president of operations…that model has not worked well.
I remember how his Boston teams were really fun to watch!
Like when you could hear him on the telecast all the time over coaching from the sidelines like an AAU coach
That famous Duke-Kentucky ncaa game, with the shot by Laettner… Pitino spent half the game yelling at his bigs, telling them to raise their arms on defense in the classic you-got-me surrender stance, even though the refs were keying that as the sign of a foul committed. Some refs do that. Pitino got maybe 3 of his bigs in foul trouble with that coaching tip. They should have won.
Does adidas have a team?
Wizards!
He needs to retire and that scandal is way too fresh. Said he knew nothing about the prostitutes for the players and the new cars etc. The same coach who plans practices down to the second as one of the most detail oriented individuals.
Pitino would help a good or great team. At his age, a bad team is not a good fit. Not a very clean dude, image wise, but smart coach.