Pete Thamel of Yahoo! Sports says John Calipari used UCLA to pad his bank account and ego.
Thamel added, “In a hat tip to his narcissism, Calipari forced Big Blue Nation to bow at his feet – apparently forever – as he again squeezed its bank account.”
Here is an excerpt:
But with UCLA not reaching the Final Four this decade, it marks the first decade without an appearance since the 1950s. With the college basketball world descending on Minneapolis this week, UCLA will still manage to create a buzz like the good old days. Just for all the wrong reasons.
The UCLA coaching search is 92 days old, and it appears destined to underwhelm. If UCLA moves quickly in its search, it will proceed to hire a second-tier choice that will take the job knowing he is a B-list choice.
Even worse, Kentucky coach John Calipari shamelessly used UCLA to the point of embarrassment again on Monday, taking the school’s interest and reported contract offer and flipping it into a so-called lifetime contract. Calipari’s bruised ego needing a boost after again losing in the NCAA tournament to a team with inferior talent, so he exploited and re-exploited UCLA’s interest as a double-shot of leverage to fuel both his self-worth and bank account. Wooden had the Pyramid of Success. Calipari now can afford to build a pyramid.
In a hat tip to his narcissism, Calipari forced Big Blue Nation to bow at his feet – apparently forever – as he again squeezed its bank account. A good Final Four bar debate: Who looks worse? Calipari for blatantly using UCLA and perpetuating his reputation as college athletics most overt mercenary? Or UCLA for being unsophisticated enough to wait all this time for an inevitable outcome only it couldn’t see?
