Lose or lose, the 4-48 Nets have had no problem this season attracting attention. What’s especially charming is their capacity to get entangled in two or three webs concurrently, even when blameless and even when the crux of the matter is make believe.
Did Rick Pitino reach out to Nets president Rod Thorn in recent days, as the Daily News purports?
Unequivocally!
At Dick McGuire’s funeral Monday, Pitino walked over to Thorn and extended his hand and said a quick hello to someone he has been very good friends with for years — and then rejoined his wife, Joanne.
Pitino might want to think about making some extra money on the side as a mystic. Moments before approaching Thorn, he told Joanne and Leslie McGuire, Dick’s daughter, he was going to make this quick, otherwise rumors were bound to ignite.
OK, on to the next claim by the Daily News: Has Pitino made himself a candidate for the Nets coaching job next season?
“There’s not a word of truth to that,” said the Louisville coach prior to his team’s 74-55 loss to St. John’s last night.
Do I hear any bids on this denial? As a rule, we all know what they’re worth. In this case, I tend to believe Pitino. It’s simply too early to start angling for the Nets’ job.
For one thing, it’s an exercise in futility. Thorn has no hint whether he’ll be retained as team president once incoming owner Mikhail Prokhorov receives expected approval this weekend from the NBA’s Board of Governors.
Why would Pitino’s people contact Prokhorov’s people, and thus circumvent Thorn? Wouldn’t that summarily quash any chance of getting the job should Thorn be rehired?
Maybe someone in Pitino’s camp is looking hurt and humiliate him while his team is in New York; they’re surely not helping. To suggest it’s a ploy to squeeze more money out of Louisville is ignorant because the school, whose officials have been unbelievably loyal, last year extended his contract to 2013.
The fact is, Pitino has no reason to take a heated rush at Thorn. What’s more, he’d never make an end run around his back. Their friendship and respect runs too deep.
So much so I’m compelled to start a new paragraph and accentuate something that happened his third year (2000-01) in Boston. That’s when Pitino recognized he couldn’t handle being coach and president. So, what did he do? He offered Thorn, then the league’s VP of Violence, the Celtics’ top spot.
In other words, there’s plenty of time for Pitino to submit his services should Thorn preserve his image at the line of scrimmage. What’s so alluring about the Nets’ job, anyway? And it’s not as if Pitino will be devoid of NBA and college options should Thorn’s replacement have someone else in mind if (or should I say when) he leaves Louisville.
For the record, I’m hearing Jerry Colangelo (over son, Bryan) is the Russian’s first choice to run the Nets.
Pitino’s departure is all but a given in light of how uncomfortable things have become for his wife and family since he made headlines at a local restaurant back in 2003 by, ahem, ordering off the menu. As you might recall, Pitino admitted last year to having consensual sex with Karen Cunagin Sypher, who herself is facing a pesky trial on charges of attempted extortion and intimidating a witness.
She has pleaded not guilty. He’s pushing for the trail, possibly in April, because he wants the truth to come out. A plea bargain agreement also would mean a lesser sentence and Pitino is adamantly opposed to anything but the max.
Accordingly, any place, any team — Nets, St. John’s, Clippers, Fordham, Magic, trade school, Peace Corps — is probably better than Pitino’s current space.
I’m betting those 1,016 fans who braved both the elements and the ineptitude Wednesday night at the I-Nod Center can’t wait for the coaching and ownership outcome.
Not for nothing, but most NBA players have seen more witnesses at their own hearings.
Absence supposedly makes the heart grow fonder. Apparently it also makes the MVP case grow weaker.
Kobe Bryant, out with a sprained ankle the last three pre-All-Star break games, has seen his understudies win by 16 (at Portland), 12 (San Antonio) and 15 (at Utah) points, respectively.
The first of those wins snapped a nine-game skid at the Morose Garden, while Wednesday night’s victory ended a Jazz nine-game run.
“I think they’re cheating on me,” Kobe may have told Vanessa.