Should St. John’s spike Norm Roberts, it’s unfathomable the university would contact or consider anyone without first feeling out Mark Jackson. Yet, supposedly, Virginia Tech’s Seth Greenberg already is the leading candidate for a coaching seat that’s still occupied.
No disrespect to the Plainview, L.I., product, but how can that be true?
What makes anyone think Greenberg can convince local blue-chippers to stay home or lure out-of-towners to Union Turnpike, which doesn’t even boast a nearby subway stop?
He may be the greatest coach who ever lived, but if his prospective hiring doesn’t grab someone as impressionable as me, why would street-wise kids find him magnetizing?
Of course, if St. John’s knows that re-upping Jackson — floor leader of its ’85 Final Four frolic — is an impossibility, then, I guess, Greenberg is as good a name as any that’s out there not christened Jay Wright.
Because Wright keeps stealing our upper-crust indigenous talent, why not steal him away from Villanova?
It’s never too late! There’s always a buyout, it seems, in every college coach’s contract — in small print. Then again, from what I hear, Wright may be turning pro sooner than later.
Sources say the 76ers approached him a summer or two ago, but advances were rejected. Guaranteed, they will come calling again, as well as intensify their interest, in mid-April immediately after Eddie Jordan is fired, a conclusion no longer in doubt, I’m assured by a Philadelphian with a strong pulse on everything 76er-related.
Whether team president/general manager Ed Stefanski will be zapped as well is blurred, but he’s clearly not safe.
In the meantime, Wright additionally can expect to be romanced by the Nets. If Rod Thorn remains team president, as it appears he will when incoming majority owner Mikhail Prokhorov finally gets approval from the NBA’s Board of Governors, “look for Jay to be on the top of the list when he presents his suggestions.”
Then again, as original column contributor John Milich points out, “It’d be understandable if the first coach Prokhorov personally wished to interview was [Mike Fratello the] man commonly referred to as ‘The Czar.’ ”
Where was I before going off on a Jay Wright tangent? Oh, yeah, St. John’s and Mark Jackson. A few years ago, he told me the thought of coaching his alma mater intrigued him. Since then he built a new home in Los Angeles and dropped his side job as a Nets analyst and works exclusively for ABC/ESPN.
In other words, Jackson gets paid $1 million a year to hit the road once or twice a week over a seven-month period to talk NBA basketball on TV.
According to someone with a need to know salaries of college coaches, Roberts’ annual salary is 600G. Concurrently, Billy Donovan and John Calipari bank $4 million per, whereas Rick Pitino’s take is $3.5 million.
Granted, Jackson has zero bench experience at any level, but has four years of college and 18 years pro experience as a coach on the floor. That was good enough to finish runner-up to coach Mike D’Antoni and Kurt Rambis during the last coaching searches by the Knicks and Timberwolves, respectively, and we can see for ourselves what great decisions they were.
Meaning, Jackson would command a minimum of $1.5 million to give up his L.A. and TV lounge act for St. John’s.
Can St. John’s afford him? Seems to me, it cannot afford not to take the financial plunge if that’s what it’ll take to get Jackson back on the Jamaica campus.
St. John’s routinely covets candidates after they belong to neighbors (Georgia Tech’s Paul Hewitt), or don’t covet coaches they should (Davidson’s Bob McKillop). One way or the other, shame, shame! It’s time to break that infertile habit.
Obviously, again, if St. John’s knows that re-enlisting Jackson is an unfeasible, then, I guess, Greenberg is as good a name as any that’s out there not christened Tom Pecora.
Hey, imagine how strong I would go to the hoop for Hofstra people had I lasted at the school for than two semesters.
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Today’s column is dedicated to Robert Whaley. For those who didn’t read about it, the former Cincinnati Bearcat and NBA cup-of-decaf dude invented the popular Rectal Reefer . . . allegedly hiding Colombian in his butt and claiming he was actually someone else.
Geez, how did Seton Hall miss this guy?
Props to the 76ers for keeping the Nets at bay Wednesday night, and snapping a five-game slide before several disinterested spectators.
FYI: They play the Knicks tonight at the Sexual Harassment Hacienda tonight.
I’m wagering more people have walked away from Gov. David Paterson than are going to walk up for this game.
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This just in from column contributor Dino DiPietro: “Harold Miner has been sanctioned by David Stern to obtain majority ownership of a development league team.”