Report: Cleveland Cavaliers offered John Calipari $80 million over 10 years
By Jack Maloney
Ever since LeBron James left the Cleveland Cavaliers to take his talents to South Beach, fans, and even the team, have dreamt of his return. Despite all their supposed hate towards The King, everyone in Cleveland would welcome him back in a heartbeat. And despite their claims to the contrary, the Cavs are constantly making moves to position themselves to bring James back to Cleveland.
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It seems their latest (failed) move was also an attempt at attracting LeBron. Earlier this morning, reports came out that the Cavaliers had made a big offer to current Kentucky head coach, John Calipari. That’s a pretty good idea, especially if you’re going to be looking to the college ranks for a coach. Calipari has been successful and is well liked by many players. But this offer that they made him seems a bit outrageous.
As we just discussed on @SportsCenter, I'm told money details in Cavs' pitch to John Calipari were closer to $80 million range over 10 years
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) June 9, 2014
Cavs' thought process: If you can convince Calipari to make the move to Cleveland, it gives Cavs MUCH better shot at bringing LeBron home
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) June 9, 2014
But Calipari, like Kevin Ollie before him, resisted Cavs' overtures. Billy Donovan & Tom Izzo, as they did w/Wolves, have also resisted Cavs
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) June 9, 2014
This is just classic Cavs. The problem isn’t that they approached Calipari, the problem is they didn’t sign him and now everyone knows. It contradicts their statements that they aren’t going after LeBron, and it undermines the power of new general manager David Griffin.