John Calipari Wanting $12 Million Per from the Brooklyn Nets is Crazy
John Calipari is living proof of something that Ted Dibiase said a long time ago. Who is Ted DiBiase some of you youngsters might ask?
Growing up watching wrestling in the 80’s “The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase had to be one of your favorite wrestlers.
He was led to the ring by his trusty flunky/assistant Virgil, and more importantly, DiBiase was led by his ego.
Ted DiBiase had to be one of your favorite wrestlers at that time because of his brutal honesty when it came to people and there need for money.
“The Million Dollar Man” coined the phrase “Everybody has a price for The Million Dollar Man” and he was right.
Everyone, well most people anyway, have a price at which they may consider compromising their values, or giving up the comfort they are currently enjoying, in order to be taken out of that comfort zone to earn the agreed upon amount of coin.
Kentucky Wildcats
John Calipari was pretty clear about the amount of money it would take for him to bail on the Kentucky Wildcats in order to coach the Brooklyn Nets who recently fired their head coach Lionel Hollins.
According to nesn.com, “John Calipari would want a 10-year, $120 million NBA contract” to uproot from Lexington and help put the New Jersey Nets on a winning track.
The funny thing about it is that Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov, who is actaually a billion dollar man, might actually consider giving up those duckets in order to bring in a big name like Calipari.
If there is one thing that Prokhorov has established since becoming an owner in the NBA, it is that he is not afraid to spend money, and that he wants to make a splash when he does give up the loot.
Calipari asking for $12 million per season can be taken one of two ways. Either he is setting his price high so owners will think he is crazy and never ask him to coach professionally again, or Calipari’s ego is such that he really feels that he is worth that kind of money to an NBA franchise.
We are going to roll with ego in this instance. Coach Cal is not worth $12 million a year in the NBA. We already have seen him try the NBA experiment before with the Nets in the Mid-90’s and it was not pretty at all.
Calipari from 1996-1999 built a 72-112 record with the then New Jersey Nets. He did claim one winning season for himself in the 1997-98 season with the Nets finishing 43-39 in which he was swept out of the NBA playoffs. But other than that season it was ugly for him.
Kentucky in 2014 signed Calipari to a seven-year, $52 million deal and then tacked on a one-year extension in 2015.
He already has a pretty cushy job bringing in the top basketball recruits in the nation and challenging for National Championships every year.
So for him to put out the $120 million dollar figure, he is basically saying that he has a price and his price is outrageous.
You could imagine John Calipari trying to fleece a university who is trying to rebuild there hoop program for that much money.
His college basketball resume is well established, and the administration would know that they are going to have the top recruits coming to their campus as well as be one of the top basketball teams in the land.
Final Four appearances would almost be certain and revenue would be rolling into the school.
But with Calipari’s NBA record from the 90’s, $120 million is to steep.
Even if Prokhorov was considering giving Calipari full control of basketball operations, it is not worth $120 million to the cause.
Would you seriously trust John Calipari to put together a winning NBA roster for that price? Hades no !
It sure is cool to see that John Calipari thinks that highly of his skills, and honestly it is not out of the realm of possibility for him to actually get that much money or close to that kind of money for his services from Prokhorov.
But in the end his place is in college basketball and he has the 2015 Hall of Fame induction to back that.
Next: Five National Player of the Year Candidate
He may have that professional itch to scratch however, and in order to get him to leave one of the best college jobs on the planet you are going to have to show him nine-digits.
Good luck Brooklyn Nets if you do decide to meet his demands. That would show a whole lot of testicular fortitude.