When a Very Good NBA Job Opens Up, Somebody's Going to Float Coach K's Name as a Possibility
By Jason McIntyre
How many times has Coach K-to-the-Lakers-to-Coach-Kobe come up? Hell, even the Nets harbored dreams of Coach K back when they were thought to have a crack at the No. 1 pick (John Wall) and thus the potential of adding LeBron thanks to a rich, splash-loving owner. It’s time to put an end to the Coach K-to-the-NBA chatter. He’s coming off a title at Duke, returns a stacked team that will certainly be No. 1 this fall, and why would he jump into a situation in the NBA unless it was a sure thing? He’s not leaving Durham.
John Calipari? Ordinarily we could envision him leaving, but the guy keeps stealing adding recruits like he’s compiling a baseball card collection. Would he continue to stack the chips only to bolt Lexington after just one season for Cleveland … or Chicago? We’re starting to think not.
And therein lies the problem with the sexy NBA coaching openings this summer – the only names really being mentioned are high profile college coaches. At this point, here are the three most attractive NBA coaches – Phil Jackson (yeah, like he’s going to leave Kobe and his front-office girlfriend), Byron Scott (coached 8 1/2 seasons in the league, and other than two Finals trips with the Nets thanks to Jason Kidd nearly a decade ago, he’s won one playoff series and been fired twice) and Jeff Van Gundy (amazingly, he last won a playoff series in 2000, and yet he still has those craters of fatigue beneath his eyes).
Where are all the bright young NBA minds? [Plain Dealer]