Pitino shares his version in new book
Rick Pitino told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he knows his coaching days are most likely behind him. He still wants to be involved in basketball, where he’s spent a lifetime.
“I think my time has passed, I really do,” Pitino said of coaching again on Tuesday from the headquarters of The Associated Press in New York. “I’m young. I’m physically very young and mentally very young. I just think there are a lot of young reporters out there that won’t let it go. The moment I’m hired, ‘Why didn’t school X look at this?’ ”
It’s been nearly a year since Pitino was fired from Louisville after the school acknowledged it’s men’s program was being investigated as part of a federal corruption inquiry. He wrote a book Pitino: My Story to tell his side of the events that led to his ouster from the school where he coached for 16 years and led to a national title in 2013 that was vacated because of the scandals.
Pitino’s book is partly a memoir of his time coaching at Providence, the New York Knicks, the Boston Celtics, Kentucky and Louisville. It also focuses on three aspects of the past few years, the 2015 sex scandal, the 2017 FBI investigation into the influence of shoe companies in college basketball and his eventual dismissal at Louisville.
“Some people will believe it, some people won’t,” Pitino said of his book. “That I don’t care. All I care is that there’s the truth in that book. I’m not passing the blame on anyone because it not only stops with me, but I’m out of coaching because of it. I paid the ultimate price for failure with people.”
Pitino reiterated his contention Tuesday that he wasn’t aware of potential payments to recruits to steer them to Louisville or having knowledge that a former basketball staffer hired escorts and strippers for sex parties with recruits and players.
Pitino, who turns 66 this month, plans to stay involved in the game, speaking to college teams and coaches around the country this year.