Hammer in Hand

First I want to stress how much I appreciate and respect what Rick Pitino has accomplished in his college coaching career so this isn’t a typical rant from a typical rival fan.  And the only reason for this (non)rant is because out of everything I have read, nothing has quite hit the nail on the head for me.  So, with hammer in hand, let the (non)rant begin.

 I sat with amazement, and with my jaw firmly on the ground, as I watched this man single handedly rip not only his career, but his legacy apart in his August 26^th impromptu press conference.   There was a question before hand if the damage he created could be repaired, but at this point I think he is well past totaled.  And he is the one that created the damage.  He is the one that had the fling.  It doesn’t matter if Joe Public thinks the fling is, “no big deal” or a sin. He is the one that paid to abort a child.  It doesn’t matter if Joe Public thinks this sort of act is murder or a life choice.  What matters are his beliefs and with perception always being reality, the perception he has taken great pains to create for himself says that both acts are wrong.  Everyone makes mistakes and in the end, this is really something that should be between himself, his family and his God.  But it’s not the acts that hurt Pitino; it’s the now publicly known hypocrisy of it all. That hypocrisy goes much deeper when you consider he fired an assistant at Boston for a similarly perceived, “one little discretion”.

 Let’s be very straight on this; he is the one that made this public and continues to make it public.  Rich and famous goes to a local hot spot.  Pretty after six drinks blonde bimbo walks by and twirls her hair.  Said Rich and famous takes said blonde bimbo close by and gives said blonde bimbo a taste of said rich and famous.  Said not so pretty when sober blonde bimbo wants money from said rich and famous.  Said rich and famous may or may not decide to give said blonde bimbo money, but in either case, zero or three grand is never enough so said blonde bimbo wants more.  Based on Hollywood perception which we know must be reality, this sort of thing is business as usual in the slime celebrity lifestyle.  What said Rich and Famous should not do is turn it into a federal case, literally.  While Karen Sypher may have threatened to go public, it is Rick, himself, that actually did it!  After all of the wrong, Rick now wants Joe Public to believe that he is trying to do the right thing by prosecuting a bimbo that he helped create?  He assumed he was above being touched in this, his trial would go un-noticed and this lady would get life in prison?  And this is just the beginning of his miscalculations in this saga.

 Let’s play a little game.  Let’s assume for a second that Rick said nothing on this.  Let’s say the blonde whacko, and with perception being reality she is a whacko, does sing.  We, the Joe Public, would look around, we would wonder, we would probably assume something happened but wouldn’t know for sure, we would make up a few jokes and we would probably move on to the next hot recruit.  The blonde whacko would probably turn up being impregnated by aliens in a tabloid and most of us would never know about it or care.

 “I did not have forced sexual relations with that Bimbo” Richard Pitino August 26, 2009

 That isn’t what he said in his August 26th press conference, but it might as well have been.  Some tape recordings were released.  Big deal..   No one in their right mind thought for a second that he forced himself on anyone.   Why would he need to?  Let’s face it; calling this lady a six drink hottie is being way too flattering.  That wasn’t what this news conference was all about.  I don’t think the releasing of the tapes is what is eating at Rick Pitino.  What I think gets his goat is having fallen from his pedestal and I think this news conference was his poorly calculated attempt at pulling himself back atop it.  Where he erred greatly is the steps he used as a ladder.   He blasts the media for cutting in on Ted Kennedy day then does the same thing himself?  This is the same media that has gone out of its way to present this lady as a whacko.  Then he has the gall to instruct fans on what they should and shouldn’t watch?  He tells us that it hasn’t hurt recruiting when it painfully and obviously has as several commits/almost commits have each run like rabbits.  It not only hurt recruiting but hurt his ability to recruit. Anyone remember the name of his top recruiter who is now at Florida?  Pitino is the name and while I was scratching my head at the time, which was before I knew who Karen Sypher was, I now think I have a firm understanding of why he left daddy’s side.  The miscalculations are so numerous that they simply can’t be summed. 

 So, “what is next for UofL?” is the question that rains on my day.  They have to be wondering, just as I am, if Pitino is capable of leading their team. There are lots of coaches that could continue getting and motivating kids after something like this but those are more the, “we all make mistakes” and the, “arm around the kid and lets get this done together” type coaches.  Pitino is more the, “rule from far above and use my perfect life as an example” type of coach.  Both styles can work but both are geared to the personality.  With Pitino’s hypocrisy and failed attempt to climb mount Pedestal, how can he get himself above the kids without beating them to a lower level?  And what will happen with the miscalculations?  One as simple as not putting a man on the out of bounds guy still haunts him to this day.  I can’t imagine how deep and far these will go.

 If it seems like I am mad at Rick Pitino, I am.  We should be focused on the up coming football and basketball season.  We should be focused on the Pitino/Calipari basketball game.  We should be watching a great coaching career wind down at a great basketball school.  I didn’t need to know all of this and I blame him singularly for making it public.  And he best hope that his, “one little indiscretion” is just that as right now it wouldn’t take as much as an ant to knock him right out of his hot seat, if he hasn’t lost his job already.

 What’s really sad is he didn’t ruin himself by having an affair and paying for an abortion.  He did it by opening his mouth.