Rick Pitino - From Slick to Sleazy

They say that sausage and legislation are similar in that while they both can have their good points, you don't want to see how they're made. The same might be said of NCAA Division I major sports, namely football and basketball. The era of the innocent scholar jock, if it ever existed, was long ago replaced by a big business, money rules philosophy, with only lip service paid to sportsmanship, amateurism, the primacy of academics and the holistic nurturing of the student athletes. One of the more insidious trends has been the introduction of Saudi oil sheik-level salaries for Division I coaches. And along with the money, come the scandals.

The latest, with a particularly salacious twist, is Pitino-gate. How much immunity does Rick Pitino's superstar status provide him from the fallout of his highly publicized, er, "indiscretion"?

Coach Pitino has always seemed a bit too slick by half. You didn't have to be an expert in reading body language to figure out that this guy was full of himself. He may have been the first big-time coach to employ the annoying practice of pacing the sidelines for virtually the entire game, all the time with a studied look on his face. It was as if he were a mathematician using all of his cognitive power to solve a complicated problem in advanced calculus instead of just trying to figure out if his opponent was playing zone or man-to-man.

He could be ingenuous. In 1997, rumors were circulating that Pitino was a candidate for the Celtics' head coaching job. On the Charlie Rose Show, he was asked if was going to take the job and Pitino offered an unqualified "no". A week or two later, Pitino announced he was taking the job, it was an opportunity he couldn't turn down, historic franchise, etc., etc. He then proceeded to antagonize most everyone in Beantown with his arrogance while compiling a won-lost record 40 games under .500 during his tenure.

He went immediately to the University of Louisville from Boston, was hailed like MacArthur returning to the Philippines, and given the keys to Fort Knox. In the meantime, he found time to write books like "Success Is A Choice" where, according to the blurbs, he instructed the reader on how to subordinate his ego and how to feel better about himself. Very prophetic.

Still, Pitino's success in the college ranks is undeniable. His records at Providence, Kentucky and Louisville are impressive. The Dick Vitale's of the world would have you believe that this was a product of Coach Pitino's keen basketball mind. Vitale calls Pitino a "brilliant strategist". Of course, in offering this praise, Dickie V. is attempting to elevate his own importance as an evaluator of this brilliance. In the incestuous NCAA-ESPN connection, it's all about self promotion.

Probably closer to the truth is that Coach Pitino acquired fame and fortune largely on the backs of talented inner city kids. The smooth talker would visit the families of the prospects, who often lived in difficult circumstances, and emphasize that this was not just about basketball. He would be their boy's mentor off the court as well, their life coach, big brother, father figure. It turns out that it's the coach who needed the mentoring, or at least a chaperone.

When Pitino was coaching the Celtics, and they were struggling, he famously excused their ineptitude by saying that Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parrish were not about to walk through the door. So even he was admitting that it's all about the players, not the strategizing.

When Elizabeth Edwards was asked if it was appropriate that her husband run for President while she was battling cancer, she replied that she did not want to deprive the country of John's services. The country needed him and only him. We now know she would have been doing the country a great service if she had deprived us of his services. Rick Pitino, who seems to operate from the same playbook as John Edwards, is likewise not indispensable - to the University of Louisville or any other basketball program. There are dozens of well-qualified candidates capable of running solid programs without the extracurricular activities.

Coach Pitino's Louisville contract has a morality clause which allows firing for "acts of moral depravity or misconduct that damages the university's reputation". It would seem that threshold has been met.

This is not about forgiveness which is done at the personal level by family and friends. And it's not about second chances. By all accounts, this is a very wealthy individual, hardly a hardship case. He has had numerous coaching opportunities over a long career, and others may present themselves down the road, perhaps better for him and us if he looked outside the big-time intercollege level. But he violated a trust and a written contract, and should not be paid millions by a public university after such a sordid episode.

This is not the same as a company CEO whose personal peccadillos have no bearing on his job performance. For someone in Pitino's position, with so much influence over young impressionable minds, it is impossible to separate moral propriety from job performance. Yes, other coaches have engaged in non-choir boy behavior. And yes, Pitino's high profile draws money, or at least has until now, into university coffers. But at some point, a line in the campus quadrangle needs to be drawn.

If Louisville feels compelled to retain Coach Pitino, they should offer him a $1 salary, with the remainder of his usual compensation package going into a scholarship fund. Otherwise, they should send him packing with their best wishes. Anything more will signal business as usual and sausage-making will look elegant by comparison.