What is John Calipari and Rick Pitino’s beef? Know more about the hostility between the two coaching legends
John Calipari and Rick Pitino are national champions, Hall of Famers and living legends in the coaching profession. They have guided three of their teams to the Final Four, with Pitino helping Providence, Kentucky and Louisville reach the big stage, while Calipari helped UMass, Memphis and Kentucky.
Pitino won two national championships, in 1996 with Kentucky and 2013 with Louisville (The NCAA vacated the championship run due to the infamous "escort sex" scandal involving recruits between 2010 and 2014.). Meanwhile, "one-and-done King" Calipari helped the Wildcats, led by Anthony Davis, win their eighth and last championship in 2012.
The two had also been to national coaching duties, as Calipari handled the Dominican Republic while Pitino had stints with Puerto Rico and Greece. But beyond the achievements and comparisons with each other, the veteran bench tacticians have duelled into a long-term professional feud or "beef" that had gone way past in the late 1980s when Calipari was hired as the coach of the UMass Minutemen.
Reports said Pitino, a UMass alumnus, was part of the group that played a vital role in hiring Calipari as the Minutemen's coach in 1988. It was also reported that Pitino wrote a $5,000 or $10,000 paycheck to cover Calipari's expenses, which was conveniently renamed as a "donation to his alma mater."
The two met for the first time in 1992 in the Sweet 16 where Pitino's Kentucky won over Calipari's UMass. The rivalry was renewed in 1996 when both teams reached the Final Four with Pitino winning again.
Years later, the two coaches crossed paths again when Calipari was hired by Memphis in 2000 and Louisville countered by hiring Pitino in 2001. The Tigers and the Cardinals battled for conference championships for four seasons before Pittino transferred to the Big East in 2005.
There was also a quote from an interview with Sports Illustrated where Pitino responded to a question about his familiarity with Calipari:
“I really don’t know him, so I’d prefer not to.”
Aside from the coaching rivalry, there were recruitment battles between Calipari and Pitino. In 2011, a guard from Louisville named Marquis Teague was once thought of playing for his hometown school but ultimately decided to commit to Kentucky. They would meet again in the 2012 Final Four where Kentucky won and went straight to winning the national championship — Calipari's only title.
Calipari also had some scathing (indirect) remarks to his counterpart in interviews. The most infamous of them was in a press conference in Lexington where he refused to refer to Pitino by name, calling him:
"That guy."
John Calipari and Rick Pitino: Time heals all wounds — with friendly fires here and there
As time passed by, the two coaches seemed to have patched up the "feud" they had with each other, with Calipari hosting Pitino in a podcast in 2017 where they discussed their past experiences.
In his guesting, Pitino compared his "frosty relationship" with Calipari to legendary coaches Mike Krzyzewski and Roy Williams.
"I've never had a bad relationship with John. If you said to me today, 'How is Coach K and Coach Williams' (relationship)?' ... I would say John and I, our relationship is just as good as Roy and Mike's. It's very cordial. It's very professional," Pitino said in that Cal Cast episode.
"The most important thing is we have respect for each other as coaches and we have respect for each other's programs in knowing how good they are," he added.
Six years later, Pitino was hired as the coach of St. John's, and during his introductory speech, the veteran coach hurled an indirect quip that could fuel the fire of their long-standing beef.
Pitino knew that he and Calipari were the only coaches who guided three different programs to the Final Four. He made it clear that this time he wanted to help the Red Storm qualify for the Final Four and one-up his rival, who's currently coaching with Arkansas.
"I want to take St. John's to another Final Four, so I can get rid of Calipari off my resume," he said.
Although it wasn't known if Calipari responded to the verbal jab, he was cordial years later when Pitino urged Kentucky fans to give him a standing ovation days before he returned to Lexington as the Arkansas coach.
Calipari gave his reaction in his final press conference before the game between the Razorbacks and the Wildcats. He recognized Pitino and noted he also feels the passion of the Big Blue Nation, or the Kentucky fans, during games so he understands if they jeer at him.
“That’s nice of him to do,” Calipari said of Pitino (per On3). “Look, those fans are so engaged, like these fans. Those fans travel. If you’re doing well, they’re crazy. If you’re doing poorly, they’re just as engaged. I was there 15 years. I love the fans there. They’re engaged.”
Their love-hate relationship speaks volumes in various fields they'd been in. Whether it's in the international scene, the NBA and in college basketball, the names Rick Pitino and John Calipari can always be remembered not for the beef they've had but for the professional rivalry and the coaching battles they'd had in the past.