Every kid will tell you that they want you to be real, but that's until you keep it real with them. Then they don't want it real.
— John Calipari
In a normal season, the sixth man always seems to get the most minutes on my team.
I was a very average-at-best player.
You're coaching Kentucky - and you have a chance to change lives. That's not what this is up there in the NBA. You have assets. You're trying to piece a team together. You're trying to win more games than the other guy. You're trying to advance in the playoffs, and if you don't, they'll find somebody else that can.
I'm not a fan of the NCAA. I don't think they make decisions for the kids. They make decisions for bureaucracy and for their structure.
The problem with my guys, all my guys, they come in and improve themselves so fast in college: they go from 'He's this and this' to 'That kid is the first pick or second pick. Four. Five. Seven.' Tell me about those teams: not great. So my guys are walking into bad situations.
My vision is one of celebrations and banquets, diplomas and banners, rings and parades.
I have bobby pins everywhere.
Some of the best kids I coach were raised by a grandmother who was so firm that they understood.
I'm not the grand poobah. I'm not the emperor. That's not what I want to be.
I'm not a big proponent of the league tournament.
If I'm up at 4 in the morning, it's because I'm just coming in.
You wish there was more consistency about how they do things in the NCAA.
Kentucky is the best job in basketball coaching. Why would I leave?
So kids that have pro potential and want to take a loan so that their families don't have to deal with it, why can't you?
If they're out of high school, and they can go directly to the NBA and get drafted and get millions of dollars, I'm for it 100 percent. Just let's not devalue education. Let's just not devalue it.
We're not the only ones out there trying to get good players and trying to help kids.
At times, we, as coaches, try to shove guys as square pegs into round holes and keep hammering away.
I had no desire to coach college until I went to college. Then I said, 'Maybe I can do this.' You get inspired by the people around you who move you and light a fire under you.
I was small, but I was also slow.
There are certain people I do want to absolutely dislike me. And I want them to paint me as their enemy. Because I want nothing to do with them.
The guy who started on third base and gets home and acts like he hit a homer - that guy doesn't impress me.
All my best players have been really good guys, which means I can coach them.
What I've always tried to do is undersell and overdeliver.
I never thought Marquis Teague would leave after a year.
Every one of us in this country is based on you've gotta take care of yourself.
LeBron and I are friends.
Let's not have a postseason tournament. Let's have a preseason tournament where you're guaranteed three games: we go somewhere, and all the fans come in, and we celebrate our league. We'll have great games to start the year, and we'll do it prior to the year.
If the NBA is worried about the NBA, if the NCAA is worried about the NCAA, if each individual institution is just worried about themselves, and the last thing we think about is these kids, then we're going to make wrong decisions. There are a lot of players of different levels, of different abilities. Let's be fair with them.
I've always said I have more money than I can spend, than my children can spend.
If a guy can bully you, he will bully you.
The problem with the NCAA - it's slow-moving.
I'd love to be coaching kids three or four years. You kidding me? That's what I used to do.
I gotta be able to sleep at night knowing that I'm being honest.
The whole thing is develop players, develop them as people, develop teams.
I majored in business/marketing because I was going to be a teacher and a high school basketball coach.
If they want to go to college and then leave, let them leave when they want to leave. Why would we force a kid to stay? 'Well - it's good for the game?' It's about these kids and their families.
Change does not come easy.
Let the D-League be for players who have been in the NBA, who are on the fringe, and that want to fight like heck to get in the NBA. They should have a living wage, not $17,000 to $25,000. A living wage.
When your best players are really good guys, it's the best.
Any coach out there that wants to lose, you make sure they put raisins in the breakfast oatmeal. You'll go down, don't worry about that.
If I walk in a home, and a young man disrespects his mother or grandfather, grandmother in front of me, I'm out. Because if that's the case, he respects no one. He is not going to respect me.
If you don't deserve to play, you won't play.
If you win the conference tournament, it doesn't mean anything.
The thing I can tell you about coaching is that we make decision and career moves when your nerves and emotions are still raw, right after the season. It's the worst profession for that.
My life, even as a college student, has all been through the NCAA, and I'm telling you there's so much good that comes out of it.
I'm going to continue to see my friends who coach in the NBA and see my former players who play in the NBA. I'm going to continue to go to games.
When we're worried about a bureaucracy and keeping the bureaucracy going, you're always going to make mistakes.
In my mind, I've got the best job in the country.
We should not go to a baseball rule. If a kid goes to college and, after a year or two, wants to go to the NBA and is good enough - and he grew, he got bigger, he got more confidence - let him go. Why would you now force a kid to go two years?
