Kentucky coach John Calipari has become the target of the Brooklyn Nets, to become both their head coach and have a front office role, and the Hall of Famer has given the team a heavy price for his services according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports.
Per Wojnarowski, Calipari’s asking price to return to the Nets, who he coached from 1996-1999, is a 10-year, $120 million deal, citing previous offers from the Sacramento Kings, Cleveland Cavaliers and the money that former Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson makes to run the New York Knicks’ front office.
“When Calipari spoke with minority ownership in Sacramento last spring, he told them that it would take an offer of $11 million-plus a year to get his attention, league sources said. Calipari turned down a 10-year, $80 million-plus offer with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2014, because he wouldn’t leave Kentucky with only an incremental raise on what is now an $8 million to $9 million annual package on campus,” the report states,
“Cleveland’s offer has become a baseline for Calipari’s contractual demands: He wants the 10 years and now the $12 million a year that Phil Jackson makes to run the Knicks.”
Calipari went 72-112 during his tenure with the Nets and was hired at Memphis shortly afterward. Thus, given how he failed in the NBA his first time around and his success on the collegiate level speaks for itself, it’s only right that he’d want some financial security in case things went south.
Just the same, for that kind of money, the Nets would be paying for Calipari’s name and not necessarily results. Unless he comes in with a set plan that is more than just assembling every single Kentucky player possible on an NBA roster, that price tag is way too high.
More importantly, Calipari is insisting that he’s not going to walk way from the $52.5 million deal he has at Kentucky, but this story is going to have life until someone other than Calipari is hired.
Stay tuned to Campus Sports for any further updates on this developing story!
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*Featured Photo (above) credit to USA TODAY Sports
