John Calipari isn't even two days removed from his first NCAA Championship and his name is already coming up in regards to the New York Knicks coaching vacancy next season. The thought is that now that Coach Cal has won a 'chip with Kentucky, he'd be more than open to coaching on the biggest stage of all at Madison Square Garden. Forget that his first stint as the head coach of the New Jersey Nets in the late 1990s was a complete disaster and resulted in him being named one of the worst coaches in the history of the NBA. This is the Knicks we're talking about! He couldn't possibly eff that situation up anymore than it already is (sorry, Knicks fans!). Er, make that he probably couldn't eff that situation up anymore than it already is.
In a column posted late last night, Yahoo! Sports writer Adrian Wojnarowski makes the case that Cal would be perfect for the Knicks. But, he also points out that when he was with the Nets, Coach Cal was far from the perfect coach. Aside from going 72-112 during his stint with the team, he also got so fed up with the way that people in the metropolitan New York area talked about him that he used to have one of his interns call into sports talk radio station WFAN to defend him. The intern, who went by the name "Anthony from Hoboken," called in during midday shows to stick up for Coach Cal and attempted to point out all the good things he was doing for the Nets. Worse, he made all of those calls from inside the Nets offices. D'oh!
It's obviously not the worst crime in the world. But, if Coach Cal has any desire to coach the Knicks next year, he better think about the downside first. New York fans are passionate, opinionated, and not afraid to call for your head if you're doing a bad job (or even a mediocre job, for that matter). So, before he signs on the dotted line—or even thinks about signing on the dotted line—he needs to recognize that. Unless he's still got Anthony's phone number.
[via Yahoo! Sports]
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