Slice says Calipari will always be courted by NBA teams

Last night, LeBron James and the Cavs advanced to the NBA Finals, giving Cleveland a chance to end its 51-year championship drought. The news was obviously huge for Cavs fans, but there were plenty of sighs of relief across the Bluegrass as well. After putting the Cavs in the finals in his first season, David Blatt appears to be in Cleveland to stay, meaning LeBron and the front office won't be coming after John Calipari again for the foreseeable future. On today's show, Matt and Ryan discussed Cal's NBA prospects, and Matt said he believes that Cleveland sticking with Blatt makes Calipari retiring at Kentucky more and more likely. Matt argued that as the years go by and Cal gets older--he's 56 right now--his NBA appeal will decline because teams will go after younger coaches. Meanwhile, in an interview with SNY.tv, Cal's former assistant Slice Rohrssen said he thinks Cal will always be courted by NBA teams:

“My feelings are that he will always be in demand for an NBA job because he’s a players’ coach and he’s coached as many NBA players as there are out there now except he got them before they hit the NBA,” Rohrssen told SNY.tv.

Slice also said he thinks coaching at the next level will always appeal to Cal:

“He lives for challenges,” he said. “He creates his own and he sets his bar high. There’s a confidence in him that allows him to strive for the goals and the bar that he sets.”

My opinion falls somewhere in between. I think Cal is totally engrossed in his mission to change families' lives in his position as Kentucky's coach; however, if the right team with the right players and the right amount of control came calling at the right time, I think he would consider it. Cal being Cal, he couldn't help himself. [ZagsBlog]