Amid some of the attention the Kentucky men’s basketball program is receiving for three of its underclassmen declaring for NBA Draft, head coach John Calipari posted an interesting message Thursday for fans on his website, CoachCal.com.
In the post, titled “What it Means to be a Players-First Program,” Calipari details three steps on what being a players-first program means.
You’ll have to read the full post over at CoachCal.com, but I thought I’d provide you all with a small snippet of what Calipari had to say about what he calls “The Truth” and “The Lie.”
The Truth is that these top players in the country want to play for a certain kind of coach in a certain kind of program. They are not playing for just any coach. They want to play with someone who has proven results.
The Lie is that because a player won’t go to a certain school, it’s impossible to win championships with that type of young, elite talent.
None of this takes away from our goal of winning championships. If you do right by these kids you will win championships and we have. It’s a ludicrous statement that you can’t win with players who earn a chance to pursue their NBA dreams early.