Rick Pitino Makes a Horrible Situation a lot Worse

Before I get into the meat of my rant, I really need to preface my work relationship with Rick Pitino. I first met Coach Pitino way back in 1993. He was at Ellis Park Thoroughbred Track in Henderson, KY. I was an intern for NEWS 25. I was sent to the track to go interview Pitino. I liked Kentucky. My grandpa was an enormous fan. I wasn’t nervous interviewing him, but I was very excited. Pitino was very gracious in answering my questions. Afterwards, he even signed a piece of my notebook paper autographed to my grandpa. Of course now I know that is very unprofessional. But I had just started in this crazy business, and I didn’t realize my mistake.

A month or so later in ‘93, Pitino was in Owensboro for the dedication of the Daniel Pitino homeless shelter, named after his late son. I really wanted to do sports full-time, and this was a great chance to prove my worth. I was sent with a photographer to do a story on Pitino’s visit. There was a routine press conference. Coach talked about the off-season, and the usual basketball-speak. Coach leaves and I was pretty excited to put my story together. Then my photographer gives me the bad news. “Lance, I hate to tell you this, but something was wrong with the deck, and nothing recorded.” SHEAR TERROR! My big chance, and now all I have is a big empty ¾” tape!!

I start asking around if anyone knew where Pitino was. Someone tells me he is upstairs with a priest. Oh boy, how am I going to pull this off?! I go upstairs and I see a door. I sheepishly knock on it. The door opens and there is Father Ed Bradley(UK Team Chaplain) and Coach Pitino. I explain what happened, and I ask if I could do another interview. Pitino was very nice. No problem. He gives me a great one on one. That was very gracious of him. Here’s this 22 year old cub reporter that he doesn’t know asking for an interview after blowing it at the press conference!

Through the years, I interviewed Pitino many times. Each time, he was always full of class, and quite frankly, he was easy to work with. After he won his National Championship, I got lucky at the Rupp Arena pep rally. They raised the banner to Queen’s We are the Champions, there were quite a few people on the court. We rushed over to get a nice shot of the banner going up, and who just happens to be right next to us? Rick Pitino. He had no idea we were there, nor did he care. My photographer Mark Pellerito got this awesome shot of his proud look as the banner goes to the rafters. Right after that, I asked Coach for an interview, and he again graciously gave me a quick one on one before the rest of the media knew what was going on.

I also dealt with Coach Pitino a lot during the recruitment of Muhlenberg North standout Patrick Sparks. I hand delivered a highlight tape of Sparks to Pitino after the press conference of Pitino’s hiring at Louisville. Coach asked me what I thought about Patrick, and we had a nice conversation. Then when Sparks decided to transfer out of Western Kentucky, Pitino reached out to me about Sparks.

I also always chastised my UK buddies when they got on Pitino for going to Louisville. Everything Pitino did for the University of Kentucky far outweighs his decision to take the Louisville job in my opinion.

So needless to say, I have been a Pitino supporter .

All of that said, what is he doing?!?! What is he trying to accomplish with his last two press conferences addressing his sex scandal with Karen Sypher? I shouldn’t even say press conference. He refused to take questions. It was really nothing but Pitino on a soap box.

Who doesn’t want to criticize the media? I’m a part of the media, and I personally wanted to drive to Atlanta last month to explain to CNN that 2 weeks after Michael Jackson’s death there is no BREAKING NEWS!! The media now is worse than ever in my opinion.

However, the media is a massive well-oiled machine. You cannot under any circumstance try to tell the media how to do their job! Even if you are right, there is no way anyone wins that battle. That’s like telling a 5-year old not to touch the chair you just painted.

In Pitino’s first soap box rant, I thought he started off right. He didn’t have a lawyer written statement to read. He genuinely did a good job ad libbing his thoughts. However, he tried to somehow tie in the tragedy of 9/11 to his sex scandal. Then proceeded to talk about recruiting and how well the team did last year. It wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t great. Despite the worthlessness of Michael Vick, at least Vick took questions, and answered every single one of them.

What happened this afternoon defied logic. He held another soap box one-way announcement. The media scrambled thinking Pitino could be quitting his job. Satellite time is bought, ESPNews cuts in, Louisville and Lexington media go to DEFCON 4, and then.... Pitino lost his mind. He chastised the media. He reminded everyone he is the victim. He goes as far as telling people to change the channel if they see a report on his sex scandal. I cannot believe his ego is that enormous that he thought he could micromanage the MEDIA!! He went as far as telling the media to not focus on the lies being told about him, and report about the passing of Senator Ted Kennedy! What?!!?

Pitino wants his sex scandal to go away, so he calls for a press conference! That very sentence really sums up the ignorance of the entire situation.

Pitino said the media coverage has been hell on his family. He essentially blamed the media for doing its job. My question to Coach Pitino would be(if he would take any questions), Mr. Pitino who’s fault was it that you had sex with someone not your wife in the bathroom of a restaurant?

Photo Courtesy: AP