Coach Cal to the Bulls? If it happens, you shouldn't be surprised

John Calipari's name has already been brought up in NBA coaching rumors this year.

And it should be no surprise that he has been brought up again.

Earlier this evening, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports wrote this:

Kentucky coach John Calipari is intrigued with the Chicago Bulls’ coaching job and would be willing to listen to a pitch from management, NBA and NCAA sources told Yahoo! Sports on Tuesday. Sources say the combination of roster talent, tradition and market make Chicago one of the few NBA jobs that could pry Calipari out of Kentucky. The Bulls have been hesitant to pay the $4 million-$5 million annual packages it would take to lure high-profile coaches like Calipari.

It set the twitter world ablaze with talk about Calipari following his five underclassmen to the league.

I doubt they would be as welcoming if he skipped town for an NBA job.
(photo credit: Aaron's UK Blog)

It got to the point that Calipari tweeted this:

Throughout my career I've been mentioned for other jobs. Now that I'm here u won't hear about other colleges because I've got the best job.

And this:

Every year you will hear my named mentioned for NBA jobs because I coached in the league before. I'm very happy at Kentucky.

Calipari also told Andy Katz that he has no interest the position.

And if you are a Kentucky fan, and you are smart, you should pay no mind to what Calipari says because he has no credibility when it comes to situations like this. Need I remind you that Calipari also said "I love Memphis, I want to be here" just one week before he left Memphis and took the job in Lexington?

Its no secret that Calipari would be interested in an NBA job if the right opportunity came around. All it takes in a simple google search to find a number of articles linking Coach Cal to the NBA, with quite of few of them mentioning the all-knowing "source close to the situation". Gary Parrish even quoted a source saying that Cal would "absolutely leave Kentucky, 100 percent, tomorrow" if he was given an opportunity to coach LeBron.

To get an idea about how little faith the University of Kentucky has in Calipari's commitment to the UK program, think about this: all it took was one NBA writer to pen an article mentioning a source claiming that Calipari would entertain the idea of taking the Chicago job -- with no quotes and no names -- and within a matter of hours, Kentucky AD Mitch Barnhart had put out a press release saying "We have begun initial discussions on restructuring his contract so that he's the coach at Kentucky until he retires."

Wojnarski's article was posted to the Yahoo! sports page at 6:31 pm. ESPN's Pat Forde had the first tweet in my twitter feed regarding Barnhart's statement. That tweet came at 9:08 pm.

That's less than three hours.

And if it took less than three hours for Barnhart to react to Wojnarski's article, does that mean that Kentucky is actually worried about losing their coach?

If Coach Cal did skip out on his 8 year, $31 million contract with Kentucky after just one season, I don't have a problem with it. In fact, I think it would be the right move for Calipari to make if coaching in the NBA is, in fact, what he wants to do.

No matter your profession, if a better opportunity comes along -- whether it is higher paying, shorter commute, better hours, closer to home, whatever the reason that makes the new job more appealing than your current job -- you are going to take it. If you are a waiter, there's no way you stay at Olive Garden if The Palm offers you the same shifts. If you work in finance, do you turn down an offer from JP Morgan?

Coaching is John Calipari's profession. He left Memphis for Kentucky because it was a better job, and I don't even think Memphis fans would argue that fact. And if he is getting a similar kind of salary from an NBA team -- nearly $4 million a year as a college coach is unheard of -- and that team had some talent -- Chicago made the playoffs this season and they have former Calipari-point guard Derrick Rose -- why wouldn't he go to the league?

In the NBA, he wouldn't be called sleazy for having a relationship with Worldwide Wes. He wouldn't have to deal with the headaches of recruiting. He wouldn't have to listen to every non-Kentucky fan across the country screaming violations every time he landed a blue chip recruit. There is no NCAA looking over his shoulder, ready to hand down a sanction for texting a player, or for giving a player a ride home.

And on top of that, he would get a chance to prove himself capable of coaching in the NBA.

Why wouldn't he want that opportunity?

If you were Coach Cal, would you do any different?

As an added bonus, wouldn't it be entertaining to see to watch Big Blue Nation completely turn on their beloved Coach Cal?