Give this tweet above a watch for 25 seconds. Incredible.
You don’t always have to have the best school, the best majors, the best campus, the best reputation, the best team, the most money, the best coaches, the best facilities, the closest to home, the most playing time, the best opportunity for success.
None of that. Sometimes you just need a little sizzle, baby.
Wow me. Make me feel like a VIP. Give me something or show me something I’m not going to get anywhere else.
For the basketball players at the University of Kentucky — who may actually have several of the “bests” and “mosts” noted above — one thing they received that others almost certainly do not get is a day partying and hanging out in the pool at Drake’s house.
If I’m a 16/17/18/19/20 year old kid who enjoys hip-hop and pop culture… hell if I’m that age and just impressionable and easily impressed by people, places, and things… “star-struck” if you will… I’d be ALL OVER THIS. My phone wouldn’t stop recording. I’d be living it up, every bit of it. The likelihood of these guys having anything close to this experience in their lives before this day is pretty slim. Maybe if one or two come from a family where the mom or dad was a pro athlete, MAYBE they had the yard. But they don’t get Drake.
This is the pull to get players to join you in 2023. And Coach John Calipari is the master puppeteer making all the strings work exactly as he wants them. In addition to being a member of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach, he’s also one of the best salesmen in the country. I mean, this guy can sell to kids, parents/family, coaches, you name it. Slick as they come.
He understands human nature and what people want. And then he finds a way to deliver it. The first part might be easy, the second part isn’t always so simple. But that’s what makes Coach Cal one of the best ever. He understands people and he actually cares deeply.
Author’s Note: I’m aware of Coach Cal’s transgressions at both UMass and Memphis. He’s stayed one step ahead of the law at each stop, leaving some messes to be cleaned up. But in each case it was determined people outside the program had impacted players on the team or future players. Nonetheless, Coach Cal was responsible for the program.
Winning can be dirty business sometimes. There have yet to be any significant findings during Coach Cal’s stint as the Kentucky Head Coach. I wish him well and will always consider him to be “my coach” due to his impact on the UMass basketball family.