Has Rick Pitino become Iago or Gollum?

Throughout the history of literature and cinema, villains have thrived.  Every writer wants to create the person that everyone loves to hate and every actor wants to play them.  Right now in the Bluegrass there is plenty of talk about heroes and villains.  Christian Laettner has relished in his opportunity to torment Kentucky fans as the “head coach” of the “Kentucky Pros vs Villains” game.

Does that make your blood boil?  Probably.  But let’s be real.  Christian Laettner is doing this pro wrestling turn for a buck and I don’t think he has ever acknowledged “the stomp” unless it was on a teleprompter in front of him.  Sure, the UK Villains game will be fun and will have the atmosphere of a WWF event, especially if Bruce Pearl gets involved, but these guys are not villains in the true sense.

One of the greatest villains in the history of Kentucky basketball history is emerging this week and the sad thing is, it used to be a guy that we adored in Rick Pitino.    And to be honest, that makes me a bit sad.  But that is what makes a great villain, right?

Perhaps every great villain has been stolen from the works of William Shakespeare.  Shakespeare was a master at creating villains and even better the sympathetic villain.  And in Rick Pitino, you have what could have been one of the most tortured and jealous souls we have ever seen.  When Rick Pitino comes to mind, I immediately think of a couple of the greatest villains of literature and screen.

Iago was the protagonist of Shakespeare’s “Othello” and in my opinion was the Bard’s greatest villain. Iago was Othello’s trusted ensign but let jealousy consume him when Othello promoted  Cassio ahead of him.  Jealous, Iago schemes and uses Cassio’s confession that he can not handle his liquor to get in a fight which causes Othello to demote Cassio.  Then Iago works on Othello to get him to distrust his wife Desdemona.  Iago works behind the scenes on Othello and fuels his suspicions and uses circumstantial evidence to run lives.  In the end, Othello kills his wife and himself.  The real irony is that Iago used jealousy against Othello  when jealousy has been the source of Iago’s actions. 

When all is said and done, Iago delivers the classic line  “Demand me nothing: what you know, you know: From this time forth I never will speak word.” .  When all was said and done and he was caught, Iago ends up the winner in a sort because he never intends to give an explanation for why he did what he did, and in doing so, continues to torment his victims. 

Ironically enough, Pitino’s “retort” to John Calipari is kind of similar to Iago’s line.  Calipari told Jeff Goodman that ““I ignore the jealous, I ignore the malicious, I ignore the ignorant and I ignore the paranoid.” While Iago actually never spoke a word again, unfortunately Pitino will not follow suit. 

Rick Pitino is similar to Iago in several ways.  He is consumed by jealousy for John Calipari and while he acts as if it does not bother him, we know it does.  Rather than get his hands dirty, you can argue that Pitino has had others do his dirty work for him.  He even used his own son, Richard Pitino Jr, to leak Eric Bledsoe’s transcripts to Pat Forde and Pete Thamel in an attempt to bring King Calipari down.  (I have to say that the preceding statement is technically rumor and speculation, but we all know it happened). 

Of course, every villain has that annoying minion who can’t keep his mouth shut and has to jabber about his bosses deeds.  We saw that today with Rick Bozich and his comments about the Calipari/Bledsoe affair:

You don’t have to consult Eric Bledsoe’s geography teacher to understand Calipari’s agenda.

But does Pitino really fit the mold as a classic Shakespearean villian?  He is consumed by jealousy.  He is constantly longing for something that he lost before.  He is obsessed with the new head of his passion, Kentucky.  And to be honest, all of the bad things that have happened to him recently have come at his own hands.  Going to the NBA.  Karen Sypher.  Rick Pitino is a tragic figure, yes.  And he inspires some sympathy due to the fact that he was once the King of Camelot and threw it all away for a few more dollars, driven by money and his ego.

But is he Iago bad?  No.  I still think Pitino has some redeeming qualities whereas Iago had none.  So what other figure has been tormented by jealousy and a sense of deep loss that he still pines for something he has lost?

Truth is, Pitino more closely resembles JRR Tolkien’s “Gollum” more than Iago.  Iago was pretty much a badass and destroyed anyone and everyone.  Pitino is kind of cold, clammy and wistful of what he let get away from him.  He’s not going to really do anything to know John Calipari from his perch at Kentucky, and all he can do is sit back and obsess over “his precious” past.  One imagines Pitino in the fetal position clutching his 1996 Kentucky championship ring and crying himself to sleep on the bed of money the Boston Celtics threw at him.

And in most senses, Pitino has pretty much blown all the goodwill he earned by resurrectin
g Kentucky from the dead in the early 1990’s.  As early as last season, I was still supporting the fact that the Pitino jersey should still hang in the rafters of Rupp, but Pitino is staring o turn off even the Kentucky supporters that still have a soft spot for what he did.  Like Gollum, he has let the loss of his Kingdom turn him into a scowling, bitter, obsessed shell of what he used to be.  He has been on a downward spiral the last couple of years and the whole “trying to keep up with the Calipari’s” has obviously pushed him over the edge.  He is coming apart at the seams and his recent comments bashing Syracuse and UConn should send out a warning flag. 

In the end, you can say that Pitino is equal parts of  Iago and Gollum.  He is a tragic figure for sure, and like a train wreck you can not pull your eyes away from the mess.  But you can’t really force yourself to feel sympathy for him anymore.  It’s just a feeling of general sadness and pity as you realize that Pitino is not the man you once adored.  That Pitino was lost several years ago and all we are left with is a shell of the former legend still longing for the perfect home and career he built for himself 14 years ago in a land called Camelot.

Keep following www.http://wildcatbluenation.com for the best in Kentucky basketball and football news, rumors, and opinions. By Kentucky fans for Kentucky fans