Louisville Cardinals coach Rick Pitino, who reports say will be announced on Monday as an upcoming Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee in September, took time out from preparations for last night’s Final Four clash with Wichita State to chat with Post columnist Steve Serby.
Q: What made the following coaches Hall of Famers — John Wooden?
A: The greatest teacher of any sport, in my time.
Q: Lou Carnesecca?
A: Looie, like John Wooden — Coach Wooden thought the most important characteristic of any person is humility … without it, you’re an empty man — and, Looie had as much humility as any coach I’ve competed against in my life.
Q: Dean Smith?
A: Dean Smith was one of the great innovators of his time. He was ahead of his time. He was always coming up with a new way to win, and catching everybody off guard.
Q: Bob Knight?
A: Bob Knight got the most out of every player, and could get them to do it in an unselfish way.
Q: Jim Boeheim?
A: Jim, like Looie — although he has a little rougher side than Looie (smile) — Jim is also an extremely humble man. What people don’t understand about Jim is how extremely bright he is away from the basketball lines.
Q: Jim Calhoun?
A: I’ve competed against Jim since Boston University, so that’s over 35 years. And we were bitter rivals, then became rivals, then became … we had a friendly association. Jim is the type of guy, he just doesn’t care what anybody thinks. He’s a tough Irishman from Boston — really doesn’t care what anybody thinks, he’s gonna do it his way.
Q: That sounds like you, except for the tough Irishman part.
A I care what people think , but it doesn’t change my opinion of how to do things.
Q: Al McGuire?
A: I knew Dick far better than Al, but did know Al. Dick would always say, “Love my brother, totally full of s–t, but even though I’m his brother, I still believe it.”
Q: Larry Brown?
A: Larry Brown is, to me, an amazing man. The fact that he could love this game as much as he loves it, and still want to coach at an SMU, just is what I hope all coaches are all about, because he still loves to teach the game, regardless of where it may be. I really believe that Larry, if you gave him the women’s basketball job at Southwest Missouri State, he’d say, “You know what? I just really love teaching these kids.” And that’s an amazing quality to have.
Q: Pete Carril?
A: Pete Carril, probably, like Bob Knight’s motion, like Jim Boeheim’s zone, Pete Carril has probably changed more people with less talent to win a certain way.
Q: John Chaney?
A: John is (smile) probably one of the most unique Hall of Famers I’ve ever witnessed in my life. He walked into Louisville when we played them in the NIT, and [our people asked], “What can we do for you?” He said, “Do you have a supermarket where I can go back? I like certain things cooked a certain way. I want them to cook it but I want to get it done in the supermarket.” I think he’s a very interesting, fascinating man in terms of 4 o’clock practices. In this day and age, I’m not sure you could get it done with this culture of young people, to practice at that time, but he was able to do it.
Q: What did he want from the supermarket?
A: He wanted a chicken cooked a certain way.
Q: For himself for his team?
A: No for himself (chuckle). So he’s a different breed of person, but everybody loves him because of what he stands for.
Q: Chuck Daly?
A: Chuck I knew very, very well. Went into his closet one time as a young basketball coach in Cherry Hill, N.J., and he said to me, “I want to show you something. … You work hard in this business, and someday you’re gonna be able to dress like this.” And he opened up his closet, and I’ve never to this day, ever seen so many suits that matched, and so many ties that matched — it was the most incredible thing, it was like walking into Bergdorf Goodman, and seeing all the racks of clothes neatly stacked (smile). I’ve never seen anybody with that many suits in my life.
Q: I’ve read that you’re the same way.
A: Not to that level, no. (smile). He could probably wear a different suit fir six months (chuckle).
Q: Coach K?
A: [Mike Krzyzewski] the modern-day John Wooden. I said this 15 years ago about Mike, that he was a modern-day Coach Wooden. He is a West Point graduate. … He is extremely disciplined. … He’s learned all the great things from Coach Knight, and maybe just stayed away from some of the ones — Hubie Brown always told me when I left him, he said, “Take all the great things that you think you’ve learned from me, and make sure you make them better. Take all the things that you should leave behind that you’ve witnessed from me, and make sure you don’t repeat them.” And it was a very profound statement at the time, it was right before I took the Providence job. And I think that’s what Mike has done with Coach Knight. He has a quality that very few people have after you lose — he has grace under fire. The only thing missing in a lot of great young coaches today is grace under fire when you lose. There’s no better winner, and there’s no more gracious loser than him.
Q: Ray Meyer?
A: Ray, like Looie, was a winner on the court. But there are very few people that can be a greater person off the court, Ray and Looie are those type of people.
Q: Big John Thompson?
A: John, on the exterior, comes across a certain way, but in the interior, he’s a great father, he’s a great man — he just does not want anybody to know that because it would hurt his persona (smile).
Q: Adolph Rupp?
A: You know, I heard so many conflicting stories about him, but I did not know him. There are people at Kentucky that say he was a racist, there are people at Kentucky who would say he was not. … There are people at Kentucky who would say he was an arrogant sonofagun … but people would just say that was a sign of the times, every coach during that era was arrogant (smile). So I don’t know who to believe when they speak about Adolph Rupp.
Q: Pete Newell?
A: Pete is another one that just loved the game of basketball, and continued on working with players just on their footwork after he was done coaching. He was just a teacher of the game of basketball, a true teacher. All these great ones are great teachers. And that’s what I love about all the people you mention.
Q: Roy Williams?
A: If you talk about Roy, and you start praising, he’ll immediately start talking about Coach Smith (smile). So Roy, I think, can stand the test of time because like Larry, he loves the game, and I don’t think he takes himself that seriously that he can stay in the game without burning out.
Q: Lute Olson?
A: You know it’s amazing, because the years when I was a young coach, Lute Olson was being second-guessed, like a John Thompson III now, because he kept losing early games to Santa Clara and people like that. And, I remember when he beat us in the ’97 championship game, I was immediately totally happy for him. I didn’t feel any regret about losing the game — now, I can say that because we won the year before, and it was a great game, it was an overtime game — and I was just really, from the moment I left the court, really, really happy for him that he doesn’t have to listen to that anymore, because he was another person that was a terrific, terrific coach … built something in the middle of the desert that was very special. … There are three guys that had impossible programs, and built it and stayed on top — one for a long period of time was Jim Calhoun … a Yankee Conference school that I visited, it was down to UMass and UConn. If you ever said to me, “They could be the UConn of today,” I’d say it’s impossible. … The other was Jerry Tarkanian, you couldn’t do that in the desert. And the third one was Lute Olson.
Q: Joe Lapchick?
A: I knew so many stories from Dick McGuire. He was just the type of human being that if a JV coach came over here and said, “Coach, we’re really having trouble with this, do you have any ideas?” he’d sit down with the guy for two hours and just talk that way. And Jerry Tarkanian was that way. Everything Dick McGuire described to me on numerous occasions, sounded like he was describing Looie Carnesecca to me (smile).
Q: Morgan Wooten?
A: Morgan is someone just like Coach Wooden, like Mike … humility drove him. And he didn’t have to get offered college jobs to satisfy his worth.
Q: Jack Ramsay?
A: Jack was also a great teacher, an extremely driven and competitive man, to the point where he wanted to triathalon at age 60.
Q: How would you feel if you were voted in to join these men?
A: I would be deeply honored. As a basketball coach when you go in the Hall of Fame, you realize that you’re not an athlete, although most of the people did play at their level. But you did a different type of work, a different body of work, that is maybe more important than actually even playing the game, ’cause you affected the lives of so many, even outside the game, too many to remember. And that’s what I take into it — if I’m in the Hall of Fame, I know why I got there. It wasn’t because of my jumpshot, wasn’t because I was a great defender — I did it because I loved my players, and did something more for them that they may not have gotten as a teacher, and to me, that’s what makes it so special.
Q: Who are some Hall of Fame coaches in other sports you admire?
A: Bill Belichick … Bill Parcells … Vince Lombardi — he was my favorite person in life outside of Coach Wooden, with the exception of when I read David Maraniss’ book “When Pride Still Mattered.” I felt a little bad for him, because the one thing about Italians — most of them, not to generalize any culture — is their family is more [important] than anything in life. If their family’s well, they can accept any adversity at all. Throughout the book, his family was not his family. His family was the Green Bay Packers.
Q: Some people have said that you’re married to basketball.
A: Yea,h but my family is involved in every aspect of basketball. My children sat on the floor with the New York Knicks as ballboys all during my tenure. They traveled to every game. We go out to dinner the night before every game. Last week, after it was all said and done, we went out there for our family picture on the podium, we do that every Final Four. A few years back, I thought of getting out of coaching, and for the first time I talked to them about it — they all broke down, and they all were full of tears. The life they knew would end — all the social aspects, all the tournaments, all the fun dinners, all the fun experiences — [would be] over for them. And I couldn’t do it.
Q: Where did you have this conversation?
A: It was after the Morehead State game. And then last year, I said, “You know, I’m having so much fun, maybe now, being in the Final Four, would be a good way to get out.” Every year I talk to them, and they said, “Dad, you’re having so much fun — we, without it, really would not have the experiences we’ve had from Madison Square Garden and the Big East tournament.” They all take off from work, they all follow the team, they bring their wives, they bring their children.
Q: Describe your wife Joanne.
A: She never wants me to retire. She thinks, with me, there’d be such an incredible void in my life that I wouldn’t know how to wake up in the morning. … I would never retire, I would have to do something involved in this game in some capacity.
Q: What if you win this championship?
A: Oh, I’m definitely coming back.
Q: Who are some future Hall of Fame coaches?
A: Billy Donovan and Tom Izzo are two locks. They’re two Hall of Fame coaches, two Hall of Fame people, they’re what our game is all about.
Q: Any younger coaches?
A: I think there are guys out there, like Shaka [Smart], like Brad [Stevens], you just see great greatness in them. They have a quality that I never had, in that they have patience.
Q: What would you want the Hall of Fame coaches to say about you?
A: I would just say that he’s a caring person. He cares about everybody he meets in life as a person, and is passionate about what he does in life. The one thing I’ve always said: Let your family and close friends be the judge of who you are as a person. Don’t worry about being judged by others who don’t know you, because your family and close friends know what you’re all about, good and bad. Let everybody else judge you about how you apply your trade and how you coach and what you do.
Q: Where does this Louisville team rank among your favorite teams?
A: It ranks as one of my favorites. This team has weaknesses, but they make up for it with incredible heart, They don’t stop playing. They’re just like a fighter who, you gotta knock out ’cause they’re relentless the way they keep coming after you.
Q: What would you want your players to say about you?
A: That they love me.