I’m not really sure what I think about having such a rock star for a basketball coach. You have to admit, it has been a long time since Wildcat fans had a coach who was instantly recognizable and whose mention would bring equal parts of admiration (from the Wildcat faithful) and loathing (everyone else).
Pitino was a decade away from drawing all the loathing when he was here. And Tubby was just too low key to embrace the spotlight and put himself out there in the public eye. It sounds weird but the only other Kentucky coach to embrace the social medias with a passion has been Rich Brooks since he retired. And I love getting Papaw Brooks tweets … but sometimes he needs to realize that he is on a three hour time difference with the Wildcat fanbase and I really don’t need to know how many bluegill he caught at 1:00 AM on a work night. But I love my Papaw Brooks tweets so I’m not gonna hate….
But regardless, Calipari is a rock star. Our rock star. And because of the passion of the Big Blue Nation, other forms of media (mostly hack journalists) have taken slander to a new art form because they know they know if they attack Calipari, the Big Blue Nation will triple their previous record for web hits and give them the attention they have never had before. In some case, make them a household name. And as the adage goes, these “journalists” don’t care if it is good attention or bad attention … publicity is publicity.
So this morning, I found an new way to get those elusive hits and to not incur the wrath of the Big Blue Nation for attacking their man. Simply use a picture of Calipari and mention him in the article for no apparent reason. That is what Michael Rosenberg from SI.com is doing today. In his article “Tables turned, Pearl’s tale is sad” he uses a picture of Bruce Pearl and John Calipari (pictured above) as his picture choice. Rosenberg details how Bruce Pearl has gone from NCAA snitch to NCAA villain in just 20 years and maintains that he is the same old jovial guy. And of course, our main man Cal gets a mention as well:
"Pearl was no better than most people in his profession 20 years ago, and he is no worse now.He has a famous ongoing feud with John Calipari — it started when Cal was at Memphis and the two jockeyed for position in the state of Tennessee, and now, with Calipari at Kentucky, it has become a classic Southeastern Conference coaching rivalry.But the two men have far more in common than they would like to admit. Both have long been outsiders in their own profession. Calipari built UMass from nothing and Memphis from the rubble, and Pearl’s name was dirt after he turned in Illinois — he put together 13 straight winning seasons at Southern Indiana and Wisconsin-Milwaukee before Tennessee gave him a chance. And Calipari and Pearl are both relentless self-promoters, the kind of guys who sell so hard that you might find yourself believing everything they say, whether you want to or not."
And then the story launches into how a teary eyes Pearl blubbered about being a liar. No more mention of Cal.
Of course, we know what he is doing. He has his own agenda apparently and is trying to give the subliminal message that Calipari is a cheater by including his picture on a story about a NCAA cheater – Pearl – and using the quote that Cal and Pearl are more common than they like to admit … once again linking Cal with the cheater Pearl.
So why else use the out of place reference to Calipari and the picture of Cal on his story. Come on Rosenberg, we know what you are doing and it’s lame. Either that and he is just a massive hits whore and just including Cal because he knows it will boost his readership.
But that’s the price we have to pay of having the rock star as our coach now. All it shows is that people are at the top of their field when people use their picture and mention them in a story in a mere method just to get hits. These writers know that mentioning the work Calipari in a story will give them a 20% boost in readership. Adding a picture of Calipari is probably akin to a 50% boost in hits. So you can say that a sportswriter mentioning Calipari is akin to a gossip columnist adding a random picture of Lady Gaga to their story because they know Gaga’s fans will seek it out and add to their hit totals.
It’s shameless. Some people will do anything for hits.
By the way, I wonder if Lady Gaga is going to make a surprise appearance at the VMA’s tonight?
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