Sam Donnellon: Izzo among breed of coaches unmoved by opportunity
HE MADE A LIST of college coaches he admired, reeled them off at his "I'm staying" news conference as if reciting the alphabet.
HE MADE A LIST of college coaches he admired, reeled them off at his "I'm staying" news conference as if reciting the alphabet.
"Coach K, Jim Boeheim," Tom Izzo said when he announced he would not be taking the $30 million offer to coach the Cleveland Cavaliers. "Pitino - I should say Paterno.
"Schembechler, Tom Osborne, coach Bowden, coach Smith . . . "
We'll get back to the Rick Pitino slip later, for his might be the most compelling name of all.
Tom Izzo is 55, and until the University of Oregon came knocking earlier this spring, he had slipped off the A-list of college coaches who might work as pro coaches, despite six Final Four appearances over the last 12 years. Certainly there was little talk of him when the Sixers went on their most recent hunt this spring, mostly because we all assumed he would say no, or simply route the call directly to voicemail.
Izzo was a lifer at Michigan State, or so we thought. He was too smart to step on that NBA trapdoor that has swallowed and spit back guys like Pitino and John Calipari. Or so we thought. Yeah, recruiting was a bitch and babysitting guys like Raymar Morgan can be a grind, but the job was for life, he is adored by the state he grew up in, and well, did I mention he makes $3 million a year?
But along came the Cleveland Cavaliers and owner Dan Gilbert who, like most alums of the school, believes Izzo could walk on Lake Michigan if he needed to get a prized recruit. Gilbert offered twice what Izzo is making in East Lansing for the next 5 years and the opportunity to win right away.
" 'Tom, you sound like you're feeling guilty,' " Izzo recalled Magic Johnson saying over the phone amid the decision-making process. Johnson was one of many Spartans-turned-pros who picked up the phone to offer advice, among them Scott Skiles, the current Milwaukee Bucks coach. Nine years younger than Izzo, Skiles has been a pro coach since his playing days ended, the last 10 in the NBA.
Johnson also dabbled as a coach in the pros, disastrously, with the Lakers. His advice? " 'Jump in a car, drive to the airport, jump on a plane,' " Izzo recounted. " 'Go earn something that took you 27 years to accomplish the opportunity you have.' "
But what opportunity? Money? Yeah, 6 million a year is more than 3 million a year. But Magic learned the hard way how hard it is to get many pros to work hard, and sometimes to play hard, too.
The other carrot was the possibility that LeBron James would re-sign with the Cavaliers. With LeBron, maybe the trapdoor is sealed. Maybe Izzo and James win an NBA title or two or three or four together, make a lot of money together, too.
Izzo could not get an audience with the King, couldn't get a read. But say he could, and the read was that James was coming back. And say they won titles together.
Would we think him a better coach for winning NBA titles rather than NCAA titles?
Put another way, do we revere Phil Jackson more than John Wooden?
And maybe LeBron becomes a Knick. Maybe instead of Korie Lucious giving him migraines next season, it's Delonte West. Maybe millionaire pros head to the trainer's room when Izzo breaks out his famously grueling rebounding drill.
Pro coaches don't lack control of their players, they lack total control. Izzo's salary and relationship with Gilbert would have tenured him more than his NBA peers, but that wouldn't have made him any happier going through what many of them go through before being handed a pink slip.
Surrounded by current and past players, Izzo was blatantly honest about all that in his news conference, referencing James at one point, saying at another, "It was a once-in-a-lifetime decision for me and it was at a point of time in my life when I looked at it and said, 'How many more opportunities do you get?' "
What he should have asked, which he eventually did, was, "Why do I need even one more?" Pitino got a few more of those opportunities and one of them moved him from Lexington to Louisville. Larry Brown can tell you all about opportunity.
Neither will ever be in that club though, the one that includes Mike Krzyzewski, Joe Paterno, Bo Schembechler, Bobby Bowden, Dean Smith, and of course, John Wooden.
"Guys who stood the test of time," Izzo said. "Guys who were tempted by different things but decided that their heart was where it is."
He's one of those guys now. If he wasn't already.
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