John Calipari doesn’t regret rejecting Cavaliers

When the Cleveland Cavaliers were in search of a new head coach last spring — before LeBron James made his decision to return to his hometown team — Kentucky head coach John Calipari was one of the top candidates for the job. In a recent interview with Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports, Calipari said that he has no regrets after turning down the Cavaliers head coaching gig.

When asked about it, Calipari said, “No, nope. Because what happened, and the reason I did what I did, was based on having guys come back who wanted to be coached. I didn’t feel comfortable not being at Kentucky.”

Coach Cal, who coached the New Jersey Nets from 1996-1999 and served as a Philadelphia 76ers assistant for one year after before returning to the college game, said that of all the coaching opportunities he has been linked to in the NBA over the past few years, Cleveland was the only real offer that he considered.

“The only thing that was ever serious was the Cleveland thing,” Calipari said, and that was before the best player in the world decided to return to the Cavaliers.

Whether James’ decision to return to Cleveland would have played a key role in Calipari’s decision is something that we will never know, it seems as though Calipari is content at Kentucky, where he continues to be at the top of college basketball.

But then again, he could have been the head coach of not only his friend, LeBron James, but of one of the two teams remaining in the NBA Playoffs. He may not regret the decision, but it has to be hard for Calipari to look back on it and not wonder what could have been.