In a book released Tuesday entitled “Pitino: My Story,” co-written with Seth Kaufman, Pitino writes that “my coaching career is possibly finished.”
When asked to expand by ESPN in a wide-ranging interview prior to the book’s release, Pitino admitted he doesn’t believe he will get a coaching job again.
“There was one job this past year, that I really did want. They called the NCAA and the NCAA said, ‘We’re handcuffed. The FBI will not allow us to investigate, we can’t give you a yes or no on Rick Pitino because we’re not allowed to investigate,'” Pitino said. “I’m not really thinking about coaching again in the future because I’m not in control of that. I feel it’s over for me.”
As Pitino, 65, has done since Katina Powell‘s book in the fall of 2015, he denied any knowledge of the stripper parties organized by McGee.
“My inquisitors had no evidence I knew about Andre McGee’s stripper events because none existed,” Pitino wrote. “As I just explained, I had no clue. No one they interviewed said I was complicit in any way. Additionally, they had no evidence that any other employee in my program knew about Andre’s antics either. There are probably multiple reasons for that — starting with the fact Andre knew I would have fired him the moment I learned of a single compliance infraction and ending with the fact that his ‘events’ reportedly involved potentially criminal acts like prostitution and underage sex.”
In “My Story,” Pitino continued to deny any involvement or knowledge of any payment.
“I have never discussed illegal recruiting schemes with Adidas or anyone else, ever,” he wrote. “So the reason there’s no hard evidence about me plotting to violate recruiting laws is that there is none. Let me say for the thousandth time: in more than thirty years as a college head coach, I have never given any player or their family members a single inducement to play for me. Nor have I ever plotted or suggested doing anything like this.”
Rick Pitino lays all his cards on the table in addressing scandals of his past and the current headline-grabbing investigation that led a packed Board of Directors at Louisville to derail his career. Looks like he has a new career as a book salesman.