Calipari, 56, has compiled a 190-38 record at Kentucky, winning one national championship and making four Final Four appearances. The Kings really did reach out to Calipari, but whether or not his job status came up is not clear.
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Wojnarowski reported that no formal offer has been made to Calipari and Sacramento knows it will take a multiyear deal worth $10 million annually for the coach to seriously consider the move.
Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari issued a statement Tuesday after rumors suggesting the NBA’s Sacramento Kings were talking to him about their vacant head coaching job. “Well I’m excited about our team”, said Coach Cal. “I think our backcourt should be one of the stronger backcourts in the country, even though we’ll be very young”.
Sacramento’s case on trying to get out of paying Karl his contract would be based in part on his involvement in mounting a campaign to get Cousins traded, sources said. The Kings already have a head coach in George Karl. The possibility of getting Karl ousted without pay is remote. In his only previous NBA stint, he lasted two-plus seasons with the Nets, posting a 72-112 mark. Calipari signed a seven-year, $54 million contract extension with Kentucky on May 13. Around the NBA, senior league officials and confidants of Ranadive have pleaded with him to stop these sharp changes in direction, sources said.
Calipari insisted any and all conversations between he and Ranadive have centered around Cousins – who played for Calipari at Kentucky – and around Willie Cauley-Stein, who also played at United Kingdom and was selected by the Kings last week in the first round of the NBA draft.
Vlade Divac serves as vice president of basketball and franchise operations and ran the team’s draft.
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For as long as John Calipari has been putting together really, really good teams at Kentucky, people have been saying he’d leave the college ranks for the pros. In 2013, he was headed to the Knicks.
