John Calipari Quotes

When I first went to Stevens Point, I never thought I'd ever be close to the NBA. I didn't even think about the NBA. The big start for me was making it to the final cut for the Olympic team, and I was the only one who was going to be back for my senior year of college.

I was tempted my junior year to go out of college and forgo my eligibility. I had broken several world records. I did have a lot of people telling me that I should go pro.

Rookies are also coming in from college programs as big stars, whereas when we came in, we were just happy to be there. We were happy to be playing in a big gym, to be on television, to be playing in America.

We should not go to a baseball rule. If a kid goes to college and, after a year or two, wants to go to the NBA and is good enough - and he grew, he got bigger, he got more confidence - let him go. Why would you now force a kid to go two years?

The problem with my guys, all my guys, they come in and improve themselves so fast in college: they go from 'He's this and this' to 'That kid is the first pick or second pick. Four. Five. Seven.' Tell me about those teams: not great. So my guys are walking into bad situations.

I got some cash from agents. I've talked to the NCAA. I think that should be legal. I want some money, too; everybody else is making money. I want to go on dates. I want to go buy myself some new suits. I want to buy myself some new sneakers, and I paid the agents back.

I wasn't ready to get drafted in the first round.

What is the NCAA going to do a program if a kid leaves before two years. You can't control it. The NBA is the one that has to control it.

Every time you make a jump, whether it's from high school to college or college to the NBA, you're going to hear questions about your athletic ability.

It's part of the reason I went to Duke. Coach K came to me. He saw everything but the dunks. He was like, 'It's a dunk. It's two points. Who cares?' He saw every other part of my game that I wanted the world to see.

Obviously, college stars deserve substantial compensation, right?

My high school class was the first one to know, during the college recruiting process, to know there was the option to play professional basketball, to know that the WNBA was there, and to know I better pick a school that is going to help me get to the next level.

It's a lot more important to get quality young men and good student-athletes that can be successful at the University of Georgia. That's my No. 1 goal.

People see me scoring now, but I got drafted because of my defense.

I suspect the real reason the N.F.L. and N.B.A. don't want high schoolers and college underclassmen to play with their ball is that they don't want to jeopardize their relationship with National Collegiate Athletic Association, which serves as a sort of free minor league and unpaid promotional department for the pros.

One thing I remember, honestly, was how many great players Arizona State had.

I was playing 60, 70 matches a year in college. In the pros, unless you're winning, you're not playing that many.

I learned that Yao Ming broke his navicular bone like five days before the 2009 draft. From that moment on, all I thought about was going from zero stars to one star. How do you do it?

We're professional athletes. I feel like I got treated better in college wrestling. I had a physical therapist on hand at all times, no matter what, when I was in college.

Every college coach I talk to won't say it on record, but everyone's thinking, 'Should I go to the league?' Because you don't have the same requirements. It's different. The hours are different.

It is unusual for a coach to call you, just from a fundamental standpoint and say 'hey we're watching what you do.'

My best friend in the pros is Brandon Davies, who I played with at BYU.

I was recruited at Alabama and at Auburn to play basketball.

Not everyone gets the chance to be drafted.

The structure of college basketball never made sense to me. The coach is the star and you get up at 5:30 A.M. to run before class. That was never appealing to me.