Calipari's NBA Stars Sign Massive Contracts at NBA Teams
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -- NBA free agency has begun and new Arkansas coach John Calipari saw many of his former players sign nearly $1 billion in contracts.
This all happened within the last week or so. All these players got contracts that totaled over 800 million dollars!!
— John Calipari (@CoachCalArk) June 30, 2024
Malik Monk
Tyrese Maxey
Immanuel Quickley
Jamal Murray
Bam Adebayo
Almost another BILLION dollars in contracts added on in the last week or so. I’m losing…
Since beginning his coaching career at UMass in the late 1980's, Calipari has helped 50 players live out their dreams of being drafted to the NBA. It all started with the Minutemen's forward Marcus Camby being taken No. 2 overall in 1996.
Other stars like Anthony Davis, Shai Gilgeous Alexander, Derrick Rose, Tyreke Evans, John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Devin Booker and many more have donned the blue college then gone onto great professional careers. It's a stigma that has stuck with Calipari his entire career and Arkansas now gets to benefit from the rub.
Calipari is a sentimental coach who keeps up with the progress of his players and knows exactly what is the right key for maximum recruiting benefits. Society often uses championships as a definite measure of greatness which can be unfair to most.
Not prioritizing winning doesn't mean someone is a bad coach, I promise they want to win. Calipari's intention is to take young men and develop them not only as basketball players but personal growth in a short period of time before sending them off to the league or workforce.
“My legacy will be what they do and what they overcome. Not records and all the other stuff,” Calipari said after Kentucky's win last season against Vanderbilt. “It is how do the guys that I’m coaching, what do they overcome and respond to? And how does it help them the rest of their lives?”
His arrival in Fayetteville in April was met with such a Hollywood superstar response due to who he is. Calipari has won at a high level throughout the parts of five decades where he's coached college basketball.
There will be a standard set at Arkansas, rightfully so considering the extent the athletic department went to bring Calipari here. Making it past the Elite Eight should be the Razorbacks next step when it comes tournament time.
Patience toward Calipari as he establishes his program will be reciprocated with lifelong appreciation. How he is treated at Arkansas will go a long way to how the program will be perceived nationally once he leaves here.
“Being at Kentucky, really hard being here," Calipari said. "You struggle, it’s an avalanche, it is. And it’s personal and it’s nasty. It’s okay, because the other side of it is there’s no better place to go if you want to build yourself, get yourself mentally tough and strong, and present yourself on the biggest stage, which is Kentucky basketball. But the other side it’s hard, it’s a difficult road.”
During his introductory press conference with Arkansas and national media, Calipari detailed why he coaches the way he does. An easy question to answer: there's life after basketball.
"[Coach] Larry Brown told me early in my career. “If you care about the kids, authentically care about the kids, you’ll always have a job because they’ll always want to play for you, and whatever you do they’ll want to come to you. If you authentically care," Calipari said.
"The great thing about kids, they can smell it. They know if you’re a fraud. Do you add value? If you add value to young people, you’re always going to have a job. That means someone is going to say I want him to coach my guys."
I’ve lived by the two things — good people and care. Care more than anybody else. Now, caring doesn’t mean you are soft. My practices — they’re hard. I don’t swear, cuss and throw balls. That’s not who I am, but the standard is really high. My job is to help them do stuff they didn’t think they could do and then let them feel good about that. That’s what I try to do."
HOGS FEED:
• Razorbacks have enough problems than debating Texas' and Oklahoma's impact
• Calipari may have just finalized Hogs' roster with addition of high school guard
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JACOB DAVIS