The Courier-Journal is chasing a page-turner about former Celtics basketball coach Rick Pitino, now at the University of Louisville, and the wife of one of his campus employees.In a statement, the absurdly well-paid Pitino, 56, said: "I recently learned that the individual behind this extortion attempt has already gone to the media with false, defamatory and outrageous allegations in an attempt to pressure me to cave in to this scheme."
Anonymous@3:53 p.m. says "the comment moderation advisory posted at the Courier-Journal is unusual: "Never seen this before." An editor's note says: "Comments have been delete in the chat forum for this story for personal attacks or obscenity/vulgarity."
Motivation? $2.25 million salary
Pitino is in the third of a three-year extension of his contract as men's basketball coach. The school is one of two basketball powerhouses in the state, one of the nation's more impoverished.
The May 2007 deal boosted Pitino's annual salary to $2.25 million from $1.65 million, and was to pay him $2.5 million a year if he stays until the end of the contract, the Associated Press said at the time. The contract also boosted a loyalty bonus due Pitino on July 1, 2007, from to $1.75 million from $1 million. He'll receive loyalty bonuses of $3.6 million in 2010 and 2013 if he stays at the school, the story says.Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write gannettblog[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green rail, upper right.
[Today's front page, Newseum]
You were a biz reporter at the C-J.
ReplyDeleteCertainly you know, or ought to know, how that city and state runs their basketball operations.
They're two of the most profitable industries in the state, including certain non-economic terms.
I'm not going to bother reading all the comments at the C-J site, but I will offer you this: They've been providing cover for a lot of important people not just in the Ville, but other places in the state, and yes that does go back to when the Binghams still owned the place. The H-L is just as equally compromised and everyone knows it.
Anyone ever ask you to really, really dig into certain local industries, or were you put off of doing such?
Even if you were trying to find answers, those who had them would never talk to you.
Just saying.
What does Pitino's salary have to do with anything (other than the poster's obvious anti-sports bias)?
ReplyDeleteLOL, 6:05 pm.
ReplyDeletePitino's seven-digit salary IS the story; it's the alleged perpetrator's motivation for attempting extortion. You think someone would try this against a guy making minimum wage?
6:03 pm: During my three years at the C-J, I got permission to pursue an investigation into the state's most powerful industry: cigarette tobacco.
ReplyDeleteIt was a good piece, although surprisingly unpopular in a few parts of the newsroom -- which, unfortunately, tends to validate your observation.
The copy editor assigned to the story came from a tobacco-growing family; I'll never forget the initially unprofessional editing he gave the piece. Indeed, it was the first time I was attacked by my own paper's editorial department over a story I did.
How is his salary an issue? His salary is nothing unusual for his position.
ReplyDeleteKentucky prosecutors recently had to have their staff take unpaid days off because the state is in a rough patch. An emergency $2 million was found to keep the public defender's offices open statewide. Yet one of the poorest states has two of the nation's highest paid basketball coaches and we're dumping untold millions into a new downtown basketball arena that the Courier-Journal has championed in news stories. It is an issue.
ReplyDeleteJim's ignorance and lack of objectivity are the main issues here.
ReplyDeleteWhat a juicy story - more more
ReplyDeleteWhat would Kentucky have without basketball? I don't know the numbers, but I assume Louisville basketball generates enough $ to justify this salary.
ReplyDeleteBefore people start getting too fired up about coaches salaries in basketball and football, it's standard procedure for private foundations (i.e., booster clubs) to pay significant portions of many of these contracts.
ReplyDeleteLate coming around again, but...
ReplyDeleteJust spoke with someone else who was there during the 70s/80s in the Lex/Lou area of things.
Also, still have very personal memories of some things that happened that no one at the CJ or HL was ever going to report, and probably still wouldn't.
RJ Reynolds moved drying sheds from KY to NC in those days, for good reason. The story you got wasn't much of one, although it was probably worthwhile and served a purpose at the time.
Love what ya do here, Jim, but don't believe for a minute you got anywhere close to the real story/stories.
There are bones all over the place. Whether they all show up or not is up to guessing, but my bet is not a chance.