by Paul Jordan
Can I get an “Amen brotha”?
Even if you don’t like John Calipari (which we obviously do), you have to admire the moxie of the guy as he did a radio interview with a Portland radio station and candidly discussed the Terrence Jones recruitment and makes some interesting points.
I think the first thing that is interesting is the almost admission that Terrence Jones did, indeed, have a silent verbal with Kentucky and you get the feeling that Calipari was absolutely stunned when Jones picked the Washington hat:
Well we thought that he was coming with us and when he said ‘Washington’ we were like ‘what just happened?’ That was the first thing. Then he called about an hour later and said ‘Cal, I made a mistake. I don’t know what I was doing.’ That is when the thing went like ‘You what?’ So we talked to him and said that we are going to do whatever you want. I am holding your scholarship. At one point I said, ‘Look, if you want to go to Washington then go to Washington, and if you want to come with us, come with us. Just make a decision so that we can all move on.’ But I felt bad for him to be honest with you. Because he is 6’9’’ everybody thinks that this guy is a grown man. They have emotions and they still, the peer pressure wanting to please everybody. Terrence is a pleaser. He is not one to be confrontational. He is not one that… He is a pleaser. He wanted to please me, he wanted to please Lorenzo, wanted to please his teammates. That is what he is.
Calipari also addressed some of the direct criticism he has gotten about recruiting Terrence Jones after he had committed (please tell me why Coach K is getting a free pass on this with Austin Rivers) and just like we suspected, the commitment to Washington was never really a firm one and well, some people should not speak without knowing the facts on the Jones situation:
“Well I agree with that. I agree, but when the young man calls you and says that I made a mistake, ‘Coach, I want to reconsider this’ it changed everything. If he had committed to Washington and that was the end of it then we wouldn’t have done anything. But this was a unique situation now. I have never been in anything like this where within an hour… I didn’t see the press conference but I had people tell me that at the time they looked at it and said, ‘Wow’ and then after he went with his parents. But I didn’t see it all. I mean I didn’t watch it, but it was unique. I don’t mind that Washington fans are upset and upset with me. That is part of what we do here but the reality is that I think, Lorenzo knows and their staff knows this was not our doing. I mean it was this young man and at the end of the day it is about him. It is about him reaching his dreams. It is about him making a decision that was best for him not for fans and teammates. It is about what is best for Terrence Jones and being selfish in that. I think at the end of the day that is what he tried to do.”
In addition, Calipari address the fact that Kentucky will be playing a game at Portland next season:
But I will tell you what…I think that we have got a player that fits as well as anybody that I have ever recruited. Who, what I hope is the people of Portland, when they see him they will say that we knew that he was good but we didn’t know that he was this good. I would tell you that our plan right now is to come and play in the Rose Garden in November of next season. So the beginning of the season we will bring our team out to Portland to play for a game in the Rose Garden. We are playing in Hawaii so on the way to Hawaii we will stop in Portland and play and let all of their fans and his fans get a chance to see him in a setting with us…”
And finally, Calipari seems to put to rest these NBA rumors for the last time … and for that he gets a hearty “Amen Brotha” Desmond from “Lost” style …. Now you know why I had Desmond’s pic on this post:
“Hopefully my name is being brought up because we have five people in the Draft and playing well and doing things in Chicago. From DeMarcus to John Wall to Eric Bledsoe to Daniel Orton, all freshman, into Patrick Patterson. That stuff, what I said before, can’t stop all the speculation and rumors and innuendo. What I have said is that I am going to be coaching at Kentucky and I will be at Kentucky next year. I am not out looking for jobs. I have got in my opinion the best job in the country. Now it is not easy but when you talk about coaching basketball and what you want to do and all of the support that you need. You know it is Kentucky. We are number one in attendance, in the country. Our radio show post-game has 9,000 people. So our radio show ranks in the top thirty in attendance vs. other people’s games. I mean it is crazy. We are on national television just about every game. We are on CBS five times and the other games are on ABC and ESPN. I mean all of the things that you are looking for. We are in the SEC. We have a very, very tough league. I mean I can’t stop the speculation. LeBron and I are friends. That is what we are, but I have other players in the league that I have coached, I mean eight or ten of them. So I don’t know all of a sudden this became LeBron and Cal, and how that started. But obviously I am not going to answer everything that is thrown, and all of the speculation. I just said that ‘Hey, I am going to be at Kentucky.’”
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