NEW ORLEANS — He didn’t race around the floor, head on a swivel, looking for someone, anyone, to hug, the way Jim Valvano once did.
But it was the kind of moment that would tug at any man’s heart, even John Calipari’s, the moment when you climb a ladder inside the Superdome with your proud father watching and cut down the nets with your young Kentucky players and they play “My Old Kentucky Home.”
The moment when, finally, that One Shining Moment belongs to you, because you have won The Big One.
“This is not about me,” Calipari said again on the podium after Kentucky 67, Kansas 59. “This is about the Big Blue Nation.”
Then what sounded like the entire state of Kentucky roared. Calipari held the championship trophy in his hands and his players began tousling his immovable black hair. It was 12:04 a.m. when Calipari climbed the blue ladder and snipped a strand of the net and waved with his right hand at no one in particular and then looked up from the confetti-filled floor and watched his “One Shining Moment” video and then rushed off the court to hug supporters in the first row of the stands.
Now they can throw a Caliparty across the Bluegrass State — and pray it isn’t a farewell party.
Calipari beat Bill Self and Kansas this time and shook off forever the monkey he refused to acknowledge was on his back, proved there is no coach better to steer the recruits he corrals with a charismatic gift few in his profession own.
Yet there is always another challenge for men with egos like his, men who do not fear failure anywhere, anytime. Always an elephant in the room. Always an ambition you can be the one who stands on the Broadway stage and delivers the first championship since 1973 to the New York Knicks.
In other words: Now that Calipari has won his national championship … now what?
He has been telling anyone who chooses to listen that he is blessed to have this dream job, in a place where basketball is a religion and he is now the Pope, but they all say that until the next dream job comes along.
If James Dolan makes Calipari an offer he can’t refuse, can he refuse it?
Does he want to try to be another Adolph Rupp, or does he yearn to prove to the basketball world his unfulfilling stint with the Nets when he was a young man in a hurry was an aberration and be another Red Holzman?
The Knicks should make the call.
And Calipari should politely decline.
He is the king of his castle, and they will let him ride in the Derby if that’s what it would take to keep him.
He doesn’t need to be Saint Knick.
Ain’t Knick instead.
He may never have the kind of Dream Team he trotted out last night. Imagine the 1969-70 Knicks with Bill Russell at center. Or Anthony Davis, for that matter.
Davis took care of the defensive end with six blocks and 16 rebounds, and the rest of the won-and-doners took care of the rest. All those egos checked at the door. All that mental toughness when a Kansas tornado touched down in the second half, and had Calipari reliving his nightmare of 2008, when his Memphis team choked away a nine-point lead and the national title to Kansas in the last 2:12.
Calipari can take his bows today. He is more than a great recruiter. He is a great coach. Who no longer has to hear he is college basketball’s Dan Marino.
“To win for him is just something special,” sophomore Terrence Jones said.
Calipari should recognize that at Kentucky, he would be closer to a second championship every year than he would be to the Knicks’ first in four decades.
“I don’t have to hear the drama,” Calipari said. “I can just coach now.”
Calipari should ask Larry Brown about the grass being greener on the other side. Or Nick Saban. Or Pete Carroll. Or Rick Pitino.
Kansas saved its best for the second half, when it began playing defense like the ’85 Bears and cut an 18-point deficit to 62-57 with 1:37 left. Kentucky didn’t crack. Best team. Best coach. Caliparty in Lexington, Ky., today, and tomorrow.
Not on Broadway, where Calipari never will have his hair messed up by adoring players.
steve.serby@nypost.com