Former Boston Celtics head coach and president of basketball operations Rick Pitino has returned to the U.S. college ranks, reports CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein.
Pitino took over as head honcho for the Celtics at the end of legendary team president Red Auerbach’s era in 1997, serving as not only head coach but also general manager and president of basketball operations.
Pitino held the posts until 2001, and presided over one of the least-successful stretches of the NBA’s most successful franchises, causing him to be roundly criticized for his handling of the franchise during his relatively short tenure.
Pitino went on to have success returning to the college ranks, winning an NCAA championship with the Louisville Cardinals before scandal at that school forced his ouster in 2017 after an FBI investigation revealed a raft of NCAA violations and crimes committed during his tenure as head coach.
After swearing off the profession in 2018, the New Yorker returned to coach the Greek Panathinaikos B.C. franchise, which plays in the Euroleague.
Pitino will now return to the U.S. to coach at Iona, a small college in New Rochelle, New York that plays in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.
While he won’t likely get many warm welcomes from Boston fans of that era n his return, the students and alumni of Iona will be getting one of the game’s better minds in Pitino.
Let’s hope the negative press that plagued the former Celtics GM in the past doesn’t follow.
