After an unbelievable season, head coach Rick Pitino has led the St. John’s Red Storm back to the “Big Dance.” With March Madness beginning this week, Pitino and the Red Storm are gearing up to make a big run in the NCAA tournament.
Pitino is one of the most legendary coaches in history; however, his career wasn’t always without controversy. He is not shy about scandals and has faced a number of them over his nearly 50-year career. So, what were his biggest controversies?
Breaking Down Rick Pitino’s Biggest Controversies
A good number of his controversies came while he was the head coach at Louisville, including a sex and extortion scandal.
News broke then that Rick Pitino was the target of extortion with Karen Sypher. In the news, it was stated that Sypher demanded some good pay for a “sexual encounter” the two had.
The pay included money and cars—multiple of them. The encounter came at a Louisville restaurant back in 2003. Still, Pitino announced that it was consensual. Overall, this scandal concluded when Sypher was sentenced to seven years in prison for her behavior.
In 2017, Pitino came under fire again in another scandal, which saw him lose his head coaching position at Louisville. This was a much more serious scandal for Pitino, as he was accused of scheming with program coaches to pay recruits’ families.
This scandal not only ended Pitino’s career at Louisville but also took down its former athletic director, Tom Jurich, who was placed on administrative leave. The allegations stated that an Adidas executive conspired to pay a top-ranked recruit to play at Louisville and represent Adidas when he turned pro.
While it didn’t name Louisville directly, it involved the recruitment of Brian Bowen, who committed to the school in June 2017. This wasn’t Pitino’s first time getting in trouble for trying to persuade a recruit to choose his school; his first issue came all the way back in 1977.
KEEP READING: Rick Pitino’s Coaching Career: From NCAA Championships to NBA Stints
When Pitino first started his coaching career, he did so at the University of Hawaii. During his time there, he came under fire for providing round-trip airfare for a player between New York and Honolulu. He also arranged for student-athletes to get used cars for season tickets and even gave them each a coupon for free McDonald’s.
Overall, despite a legendary career, Pitino has not escaped controversies. He’s still, without a doubt, a Hall of Fame coach and one of the best the game has ever seen. However, it begs the question of what people will remember more: his legacy or the scandals.
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