John Calipari Quotes

I was happy working for the N.B.A., but to be honest, I decided that I'd probably get back into coaching. I missed the teaching, I missed the games, I missed the competition.

I have no desire to coach basketball.

You're coaching Kentucky - and you have a chance to change lives. That's not what this is up there in the NBA. You have assets. You're trying to piece a team together. You're trying to win more games than the other guy. You're trying to advance in the playoffs, and if you don't, they'll find somebody else that can.

I've had a number of kids in the NBA that I've coached and a number of other great players that I've coached.

I think I bring a good perspective because I did a lot of things in the NFL - player, head coach, assistant and scout.

Your dream, when you buy a sports franchise, is to win the championship, the Super Bowl.

We're not the only ones out there trying to get good players and trying to help kids.

It's very rare to find a basketball coach that gets both: that gets the Xs and Os and also gets life.

I've talked to a lot of NBA superstars and legends about how I can improve my IQ offensively and defensively.

I think it is inevitable that I'll be coaching or be a GM.

Gregg Popovich is one of the best coaches in the history of the NBA.

I am a big NBA fan, where a lot of players play on physicality.

Assistants like Tim Grgurich worked with me and watched film of me from my Oregon State days.

When you have a chance to get Phil Jackson to run your team, you just do it, plain and simple.

Watching a guy go from not having ever played an NBA game before to growing up and developing into an All-Star player, that's probably the most rewarding thing that you can do as a coach.

I've been a coach for 30 years and I've been around football my entire life.

I wanted to become a college coach. I got game films of all the good college coaches - Pete Newell at California, Eddie Donovan with St. Bonaventure, Ken Loeffler at LaSalle.

A big part of me has been tied to coaching and I want to get into coaching and make a difference that way.

To look at the players, to communicate with the players, to observe and to analyze - that's my job.

I got interested in coaching while I played at St. Joseph's. Because we played a national schedule, we played teams coached by Nat Holman, Joe Lapchick, Hank Iba, and others. I could see the impact the coach had on their teams, and I thought, 'That's a pretty good thing to do.'

Whether it's drafting or player development, the ultimate is putting a team together.

I would love to go into coaching someday.

For sure, I would like to continue my life with the strings of football by being a coach, manager - I don't know. But one thing is clear: I will continue doing something related to football.

I went to Kentucky to be a better player.

NBA teams like to see guys who can help a team win a game in a lot of fashions.