After saying he’d never coach again, Rick Pitino will coach once again

Former Louisville basketball head coach and basketball hall of famer, Rick Pitino has found a new place of employment.

In September of 2018 Rick Pitino “unofficially” announced that he would be retiring from coaching, just like he announced a few months earlier on the Dan Patrick show that he’d never do another interview again. In both scenario, no one believed a word out of his mouth. How could you?

Coming from the guy who once led us to believe that David Padgett’s season was over (only to play in the next game) as well as trying to pull a fast one in saying Mike Marra was the best high school shooter he’d ever seen, it shouldn’t be a big surprise when what he said isn’t what he actually meant or believed.

After hiring Drew Rosenhaus, one of the biggest name agents across the world of sports, back in October it was reported that Rick Pitino was close to a return to coaching. At the time it was believed that Pitino had interest in returning to the NBA, a league he had not coached in since 2001.

Instead in the weirdest news you’ll hear today, Rick Pitino has been named the new head coach of Panathinaikos B.C., one of the most prestigious and successful organizations in all of Europe.

This was first reported by the man himself Woj.

Pitino will take over a team in the middle of their season who just fired their coach YESTERDAY. As Woj pointed out, not only will Rick Pitino have to navigate a new basketball landscape, but he’ll also have to deal with one of the most violate owners in European basketball in Dimitrios Giannakopoulos. As Woj wrote in a story for ESPN, Giannakopoulos has become one of the most notorious owners in all of Europe, and not for his team’s play.

Adrian Wojnarowski wrote:

"“He (Giianakopoulos) was fined 150,000 euros in 2015 for barging into the referee’s room and threatening to kill the officials and their families after a playoff victory over CSKA Moscow.”"

The former Louisville head coach will take over a team currently ranked 10th in the Euroleague standings and will have until April to get things turned around. Pitino will take over a team with a very talented roster with several years of European experience as well as NBA experience. Some of the names you may recognize are former Florida Gators star and Memphis Grizzlies guard, Nick Calathes, former Maryland forward James Gist, former Kansas star Keith Langford, along with former lottery pick, Giannis Pappagiannis, and Thanasis Antetokounmpo, the younger brother of Bucks star, Giannis Anteokoumpo.

The deal for Pitino will only be for the remainder of the season in hopes of the Hall of Famer landing an NBA job at the end of the regular season in 2019.

Pitino hasn’t coached the game of basketball since being fired by the University of Louisville after and FBI Investigation revealed that former Louisville assistants Jordan Fair and Kenny Johnson allegedy offered to pay former UofL commit, Brian Bowen, $100.000 to play for the Cards.

I woke up today not expecting to write about Rick Pitino taking over as the Head Coach of a European team, but here we are.

Best of luck Rick. Go sign Peyton Siva and Russ Smith.