University of Kentucky's head coach John Calipari is reportedly interested in taking the New York Knicks president of basketball operations position. The position became open recently when the Knicks fired Phil JacksonP after holding the job for the last three seasons. According to Ian Begley of ESPN, "John Calipari has reached out to the New York Knicks through intermediaries to express interest in the team's vacant president of operations role."

However, on Friday morning, ESPN reported that Calipari denies the rumors that he has expressed any interest in joining the New York Knicks by saying, "I am the coach of Kentucky and will be for a long time." Calipari has been the coach of the University of Kentucky's men's basketball team since 2009 and has been known since for recruiting the best high school prospects in the nation and helping those players take advantage of the one-and-done rule implemented by the NBA.

NBA experience

John Calipari has had a successful coaching career in college basketball. After his first head coaching opportunity with UMass ended in 1996, he made his NBA debut when he was hired as the head coach and vice president of basketball operations by the New Jersey Nets. John did not experience the same success in the NBA as he did in college. After just three years with the Nets, he was fired in 1999. Calipari left New Jersey with a losing record of 72-112. He would then move on to be an assistant coach with Larry Brown and the Philadelphia 76ers for a season, before returning to college to take the head coaching job at Memphis.

Life at Kentucky

Coach Cal' took the job at Kentucky in 2009, just a season after losing his only NCAA championship appearance with Memphis in 2008.

In his first season with the UK, Calipari enjoyed the luxury of having four five-star recruits on his team. John Wall, Eric Bledsoe, Demarcus Cousins, and Daniel Orton would all eventually be drafted in the first-round of the 2010 NBA Draft after spending just one season with the program. Although the team was highly talented, they would lose in the Elite 8 round of the NCAA tournament.

For the 2011-12 college season, Calipari would assemble another team with four five-star recruits that included New Orleans Pelicans star forward, Anthony Davis. It was this team that would earn Calipari his first NCAA championship.

At the conclusion of the 2012 season, John Calipari renegotiated his contract with Kentucky that boosted his pay to $8 million annually.

The payday has made Calipari one of the highest paid coaches in college basketball still to this day.
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