Fans, media and journalist of every venue should know by now that when a coach speaks it should be taken with a grain of salt. But it never fails that when the larger than life Coach Pitino speaks it sparks interest from all over the nation.
A couple weeks ago coach Pitino was the featured luncheon speaker during the Mid-South ACG Capital Connection in Louisville. The event brought together private-equity and venture capital investors from across the region. Pitino summed up his remarks by telling the attendees about his greatest regrets and how those regrets made him more successful. It was comments made during that part of his speech that had folks in Boston, Lexington and Louisville buzzing.
Coach Pitino said the second best event of his career aside from stepping down as the head coach of the University of Kentucky was failing as a coach with the NBA’s Boston Celtics. Saying that these moments resulted in him finding humility and eventually happiness later in life. That seems pretty easy to understand and you wouldn’t think it would need any further evaluation but those comments have sparked up conversation amongst Louisville fans, Kentucky Fans and the Celtic Pride. Kentucky fans are upset that the comments made by Coach Pitino seem to contradict what he has said for years about regretting leaving Big Blue Nation, Louisville fans are giddy about the contradiction and Boston fans are just mad that they were made to remember the Pitino days again.
Speeches like Rick made a few weeks ago are not for dissecting and should not be taken literally. Coaches twist words, use analogies and talk out of both sides of their mouths to get across their message of the moment. Contradictions are what coaches do best. Below is a link where you can view Coach Pitino’s full speech. You watch it and decide for yourself.