美国国家公共电台 NPR Shadowed By Scandals, Coach Rick Pitino Pens His 'Story'

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Rick Pitino has an amazing record in college basketball. He led three different schools - Providence¹, Kentucky and Louisville - to the Final Four championship series. He's a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame. But Rick Pitino was also the only NCAA men's basketball coach to have a national championship taken away. His Louisville Cardinals² team was stripped of its 2013 national basketball title because an investigation³ found recruits to the team had been offered sex with paid escorts. And coach Pitino was let go by Louisville last year when federal prosecutors⁴ revealed a player named Brian Bowen was recruited after an Adidas executive offered his family $100,000. Rick Pitino's basketball sense and skills are perhaps unparalleled but so are some of the scandals that surround him, including a case in Louisville in which the coach admitted to sexual involvement with a woman who tried to blackmail⁵ him. He has written his version of some of those events in the book "Pitino: My Story" with co-author Seth Kaufman. Coach Pitino joins us from New York.

Thank you very much for being with us.

RICK PITINO: Well, thanks for having me.

SIMON: You're at the start of your book tour, maybe midway. You have been saying in interviews you don't think you'll ever coach again.

PITINO: I don't and I'm basically trying to motivate myself to not only put closure on a career but to get going with something else. I've said for years idleness is the devil's workshop. So I always tied up my day, every minute of the day from 6 a.m. to late at night with basketball, scouting⁶, recruiting. And now I wake up at 6 o'clock and put on my gym shorts, and there's no place to go.

SIMON: You still give, I gather, motivational speeches and make appearances, don't you?

PITINO: I do.

SIMON: What do you say?

PITINO: People do have to fight and fight hard to get through adversity. And I'm certainly one that's been through a lot in the last two or three years. And I sort of have a Ph.D. on it right now. And - but I am very upbeat, very positive about the future.

SIMON: I've got to ask you about one of your former assistants. Andre McGee paid for a woman named Katina Powell to bring in paid escorts for potential Louisville recruits and players between 2010 and 2014. You say in the book this was news to you.

PITINO: Well, it was news to everyone. It was news to these other - the full-time⁷ assistant coaches. That being said, they were women that would look like college kids. They were snuck through a side door mostly. They dressed like college girls. Security didn't see anything out of the ordinary.

SIMON: To get to, I think, the crux⁸ of what the report upbraided⁹ you about, you met many of the parents or guardians¹⁰ of these young potential recruits who came to campus. You are the legendary¹¹ coach Rick Pitino. Wasn't it part of your responsibility to protect them and know where they were every hour and minute?

PITINO: Well, I'll go back to when I was an athlete, and the answer is yes and no. The answer is, yes, I'm responsible for all the actions that go on, for all the people that worked for me. But as an athlete, when I visited - I believe I visited 13 colleges out of high school - the coach would take your family out to dinner, and then you'd go out with the players, and you'd either go to a social party, you'd go to some event. And then the next day, the coach would ask you what you did, did you have a good time? And no different than when you speak to your parents - what'd you do last night? Went to a party, Dad. Did you have a good time? Yes.

So when the NCAA said to me, did you notice any red flags, I said I sat down with the family for two hours, asked a young man everything he did that night, and for a two-hour morning meeting, we discussed everything. So should I have known what went on at 1, 2 o'clock in the morning? I wish I could have because something would have been done about it.

SIMON: Do you understand from the standpoint of the administration - they think - there's the case of the paid escorts coming into the campus, prior to that the case of your involvement with a woman who subsequently tried to blackmail you. Can you see where the administration would say, come on, enough's enough? It has a...

PITINO: One hundred percent, but here's what you have to realize. I owned up not only to my family, which was hurt deeply by my indiscretion 14 years ago, but the other stuff I have to tell you as a leader I'm completely innocent of any wrongdoing except the fact that I mentored¹³ people that did not do the right thing.

So you alluded¹⁴ to earlier about the championship coming down. The championship can never come down. That's part of history. You can take a banner down, but you can't take the championship away because there was no performance-enhancing drugs. There was no phony classes. There was no steroids being used, no gambling¹⁵ on the games.

SIMON: Should college coaches do more than just win? I mean, do they have an obligation to instruct, be good examples for young athletes?

PITINO: Ninety percent, if not more, of college coaches not only educate their players on the court, they build lifelong friendships. They mentor¹² the young men. They help them get jobs. Unfortunately, the ones that get the most noise are people like myself involved in this scandal that comes across as if college basketball is corrupt¹⁶. And it's really not. Four years ago, I went on a tremendous rant¹⁷ about shoe companies getting involved in the recruiting business. It's...

SIMON: Yeah, and even as you note in the book, the shoe companies in other ways have been pretty nice to you.

PITINO: They have. They have paid me millions of dollars. That being said, at the lowest levels when you are a great player and you're a freshman¹⁸ or a sophomore¹⁹ in high school, the agents are already targeting you, your family, your uncles, your cousins. If you then reach your potential as a possible professional basketball player, they're already in the door at a very young age.

SIMON: I have to ask you one last question, coach. What do you say to those people who say I don't think coach Pitino ought to be giving speeches on leadership, look at his record?

PITINO: Well, prior to the last two years, I probably have given close to 3,000 speeches on leadership. And in the last two years when these scandals broke, I could agree with those people who are critics and critical of me. But all I can do is tell the truth, and that's why I wrote this book. I probably am not going to give the amount of speeches I once gave, but that's OK. I have to overcome this adversity myself. And I wish I had an unblemished record. But I did it the right way for a long period of time. And I hired over 30 coaches that have gone on to be successful head coaches. I mentored the first female coach to sit on a Division 1 bench, Bernadette Locke. And they all did fabulous²⁰ jobs. And they last few hires I made apparently²¹ were the wrong hires even though I mentored them the same way mentored everybody else. So I had to live with that. It is my destiny, so to speak, but I also have to continue on and try to be the best at what I can possibly be.

SIMON: Rick Pitino - his book, "Pitino: My Story." Coach, thanks very much for being with us.

PITINO: Well, thanks for having me.

(SOUNDBITE OF LANTERNA'S "COASTAL ROUTE")

1 providence   

n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝

参考例句：

• It is tempting Providence to go in that old boat.乘那艘旧船前往是冒大险。
• To act as you have done is to fly in the face of Providence.照你的所作所为那样去行事，是违背上帝的意志的。

2 cardinals   

红衣主教( cardinal的名词复数 )； 红衣凤头鸟（见于北美，雄鸟为鲜红色）； 基数

参考例句：

• cardinals in scarlet robes 身披红袍的枢机主教
• A conclave of cardinals was held to elect the new Pope. 红衣主教团举行了秘密会议来选举新教皇。

3 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

4 prosecutors   

检举人( prosecutor的名词复数 )； 告发人； 起诉人； 公诉人

参考例句：

• In some places,public prosecutors are elected rather than appointed. 在有些地方，检察官是经选举而非任命产生的。 来自口语例句
• You've been summoned to the Prosecutors' Office, 2 days later. 你在两天以后被宣到了检察官的办公室。

5 blackmail   

n.讹诈，敲诈，勒索，胁迫，恫吓

参考例句：

• She demanded ＄1000 blackmail from him.她向他敲诈了1000美元。
• The journalist used blackmail to make the lawyer give him the documents.记者讹诈那名律师交给他文件。

6 scouting   

守候活动，童子军的活动

参考例句：

• I have people scouting the hills already. 我已经让人搜过那些山了。
• Perhaps also from the Gospel it passed into the tradition of scouting. 也许又从《福音书》传入守望的传统。 来自演讲部分

7 full-time   

adj.满工作日的或工作周的，全时间的

参考例句：

• A full-time job may be too much for her.全天工作她恐怕吃不消。
• I don't know how she copes with looking after her family and doing a full-time job.既要照顾家庭又要全天工作，我不知道她是如何对付的。

8 crux   

adj.十字形；难事，关键，最重要点

参考例句：

• The crux of the matter is how to comprehensively treat this trend.问题的关键是如何全面地看待这种趋势。
• The crux of the matter is that attitudes have changed.问题的要害是人们的态度转变了。

9 upbraided   

v.责备，申斥，谴责( upbraid的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The captain upbraided his men for falling asleep. 上尉因他的部下睡着了而斥责他们。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• My wife upbraided me for not earning more money. 我的太太为了我没有赚更多的钱而责备我。 来自辞典例句

10 guardians   

监护人( guardian的名词复数 )； 保护者，维护者

参考例句：

• Farmers should be guardians of the countryside. 农民应是乡村的保卫者。
• The police are guardians of law and order. 警察是法律和秩序的护卫者。

11 legendary   

adj.传奇（中）的，闻名遐迩的；n.传奇（文学）

参考例句：

• Legendary stories are passed down from parents to children.传奇故事是由父母传给孩子们的。
• Odysseus was a legendary Greek hero.奥狄修斯是传说中的希腊英雄。

12 mentor   

n.指导者，良师益友；v.指导

参考例句：

• He fed on the great ideas of his mentor.他以他导师的伟大思想为支撑。
• He had mentored scores of younger doctors.他指导过许多更年轻的医生。

13 mentored   

v.（无经验之人的）有经验可信赖的顾问( mentor的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• They had a fantastic dean who really mentored a lot of people. 那儿的教务长非常出色，的确为许多人提供了指导。 来自互联网
• The famous professor mentored him during his years in graduate school. 那位著名的教授在他读研究生期间指导他。 来自互联网

14 alluded   

提及，暗指( allude的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• In your remarks you alluded to a certain sinister design. 在你的谈话中，你提到了某个阴谋。
• She also alluded to her rival's past marital troubles. 她还影射了对手过去的婚姻问题。

15 gambling   

n.赌博；投机

参考例句：

• They have won a lot of money through gambling.他们赌博赢了很多钱。
• The men have been gambling away all night.那些人赌了整整一夜。

16 corrupt   

v.贿赂，收买；adj.腐败的，贪污的

参考例句：

• The newspaper alleged the mayor's corrupt practices.那家报纸断言市长有舞弊行为。
• This judge is corrupt.这个法官贪污。

17 rant   

v.咆哮；怒吼；n.大话；粗野的话

参考例句：

• You can rant and rave at the fine,but you'll still have to pay it.你闹也好，骂也好，罚金还是得交。
• If we rant on the net,the world is our audience.如果我们在网络上大声嚷嚷，全世界都是我们的听众。

18 freshman   

n.大学一年级学生(可兼指男女)

参考例句：

• Jack decided to live in during his freshman year at college.杰克决定大一时住校。
• He is a freshman in the show business.他在演艺界是一名新手。

19 sophomore   

n.大学二年级生；adj.第二年的

参考例句：

• He is in his sophomore year.他在读二年级。
• I'm a college sophomore majoring in English.我是一名英语专业的大二学生。

20 fabulous   

adj.极好的；极为巨大的；寓言中的，传说中的

参考例句：

• We had a fabulous time at the party.我们在晚会上玩得很痛快。
• This is a fabulous sum of money.这是一笔巨款。

21 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。