Louisville Magazine is Louisville's city magazine, covering Louisville people, lifestyles, politics, sports, restaurants, entertainment and homes. Includes a monthly calendar of events.
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LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 2.16 53 "It turns my stomach. And I've said it 100 times — I don't want to keep beating this — but I don't know why they did it. It doesn't make any sense to me. It makes no sense. And everybody who was involved hurt a lot of good people…And innocent people now will pay the price." — University of Louisville men's basketball coach Rick Pitino at a press conference addressing the university's self-imposed one-year ban from postseason play. Dear Coach Pitino, When I was seven years old and basketball meant the world to me, I discovered Born to Coach, the book you wrote chronicling your frst season leading an NBA team. Over the course of 11 chapters you told the story of the 1987-'88 New York Knicks — and became my idol. I loved Born to Coach so much that after I fnished it, I re-read the entire thing aloud to my mom. Sitting together at our dining room table, I read Mom a chapter every night after dinner. I did my best to skip the swear words. It wasn't easy. ("When I am fucking talking, you better be fucking listening!" you screamed at one of your more indiferent players.) I imagine the nuns at your old high school, St. Dominic's in Oyster Bay on Long Island — about 10 miles east of my childhood home in Little Neck — would have been none too pleased by your language. Me? I was about to make Holy Communion. Te F-word was of-limits. But when I got to the part when Boston Celtics forward Kevin McHale jokingly made a request of you on behalf of his teammate Danny Ainge, I thought he was just using some basketball jargon. "Hey, Rick," I read to Mom, repeating McHale's words, "will you stop breaking Danny's balls?" Mom couldn't stop laughing. An NBA rookie head coach at 35, you took my beloved hometown team, which couldn't get out of its own way a year earlier, and molded a squad that qualifed for the playofs and a meeting with the vaunted Boston Celtics. Larry Bird walked through A basketball fan's open letter to the coach he once revered. that door. Robert Parish walked through that door. McHale walked through that door. And yet your ragtag bunch — a young Patrick Ewing and not a whole lot more — went four games in a best-of- fve series. How did you and your guys do it? You wrote extensively about your maniacal practices. You once forced your team to line up, drive to the basket and make a combined 85 layups with their of hand…in two minutes. Tey were winded, but when they fell just one short, you made them do it again. You wouldn't settle for anything less than completion of the task. You demanded constant energy. Constant pressure. But dammit, they believed in you. By the spring of 1992, when I read Born to Coach for the frst time, you had recently sufered one of the most heartbreaking defeats in the history of sports. You and your Kentucky Wildcats versus the Duke Blue Devils in the NCAA tournament's East Regional Final. "Tere's the pass to Laettner," CBS announcer Verne Lundquist said innocently as Duke's Grant Hill fred a 75-foot inbounds pass down the court and into Christian Laettner's waiting hands. With 2.1 seconds to go, Laettner — back to the basket — took a quick dribble, turned around and launched the shot that changed his life. "Puts it up…YESSSSSS!" Te crowd exploded. Te players on Duke's bench stormed the court. You could hardly even make eye contact with Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski as you shook hands and promptly walked of. But that was a temporary setback. It wouldn't be long before you took the Wildcats all the way, winning a national championship in 1996. Ten it was on to the Celtics. You took over as head coach of the Cardinals in 2001. Won the title in 2013. Even got a back tattoo to commemorate that one. You're one of only 20 coaches in college basketball history to have eclipsed the 700-win mark. Tat gaudy total helped earn you induction in the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013. The Final Act? By Joe DePaolo Illustration by Rachael Sinclair