If the NBA is worried about the NBA, if the NCAA is worried about the NCAA, if each individual institution is just worried about themselves, and the last thing we think about is these kids, then we're going to make wrong decisions. There are a lot of players of different levels, of different abilities. Let's be fair with them.
John Calipari
I'm not a fan of the NCAA. I don't think they make decisions for the kids. They make decisions for bureaucracy and for their structure.
The best food I've had in Lexington is Orange Leaf Frozen Yogurt. It's non-guilt ice cream!
People, on their bucket lists, are saying, 'I want to see a game at Rupp Arena.' Magic Johnson will call and say, 'I want to come to the game tonight. I want to see John Wall or Anthony Davis or Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.' It's become fashionable to be seen here, because people want to be seen and associated with success.
Everybody wants to say that Kentucky fans are vicious or obnoxious. They're not. They're crazy in that they watch the tape of our games more than I do. But they're passionate and smart.
I want to thank the Big Blue nation for your warming and hospitality. You all have made us feel like we've been in the Commonwealth forever.
If you react to every barking dog, if you stop for every barking dog, you're never getting home.
Don't encourage 8th-, 9th- and 10th-graders to forgo education just to go to the G League.
Let the D-League be for players who have been in the NBA, who are on the fringe, and that want to fight like heck to get in the NBA. They should have a living wage, not $17,000 to $25,000. A living wage.
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.
My wife runs the house. She raised our kids with me only partly there. It's just what coaching is. A lot of times, you're raising other people's children, sometimes at the expense of your own. I hope that wasn't the case with my children, but at times, it probably was.
Can I say this in a humble way - I don't need the money. If I stop coaching today at Kentucky, my toes are up, and I'm eating Cheetos, and I'm fine.
I think part of the reason some coaches don't want to be involved with social media is that they expect to be able to do it at a certain level. A lot of them are like, 'I'm not going to do it if we can't hit 100,000 or 200,000 followers.' Well, you're not going to right away.
I refuse to go in a home and paint a picture saying things like, 'If you come with us, you'll be taken care of for the rest of your life by the program and by our alums,' even though you may only be in school for a year or two. How preposterous does that sound?
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 want to thank the people at UMass, Memphis, and Kentucky for giving Ellen and I an opportunity to coach at three great institutions.
I'm just trying to be the best I can be. I try to surround myself with people who are strong in areas I'm weak. Which is why I have such a big staff.
I'm not embarrassed about how we recruit, how we treat kids, and how we coach them.
If I walk in a home, and a young man disrespects his mother or grandfather, grandmother in front of me, I'm out. Because if that's the case, he respects no one. He is not going to respect me.
I call it, 'The Kentucky Effect.' Guys from Kentucky are usually drafted higher, and their shoe contracts are worth more. They're in more demand overall because they played here.
I've always taken the approach that it's about the seed in the NCAA tournament.
I think I'm overrated as a recruiter.
When you're coaching at Kentucky, you're held to a different standard, and like in politics, there is a core group that absolutely loves you, and everyone else is trying to unseat you in any way they can - anything to trip you up; that's what it is. If you're not up to that, then don't coach at Kentucky.
Any coach out there that wants to lose, you make sure they put raisins in the breakfast oatmeal. You'll go down, don't worry about that.
Keep things in perspective. It's never quite as good as it seems, it's never quite as bad as it seems.
In my humble opinion, again, to perform at Alabama, you must earn the spot and not have it given to you. You have to fight like crazy to keep the spot and that it's not guaranteed - it's week to week - and you'll play in a way that they have a chance to win a championship.
So kids that have pro potential and want to take a loan so that their families don't have to deal with it, why can't you?
I had no desire to coach college until I went to college. Then I said, 'Maybe I can do this.' You get inspired by the people around you who move you and light a fire under you.
No one will steal my joy.
My vision is one of celebrations and banquets, diplomas and banners, rings and parades.
We play for March.
When we're worried about a bureaucracy and keeping the bureaucracy going, you're always going to make mistakes.
I'm not the grand poobah. I'm not the emperor. That's not what I want to be.
The whole thing is develop players, develop them as people, develop teams.
If a guy can bully you, he will bully you.
As long as I'm at Kentucky, you've got to be able to take the shots, or don't stay at Kentucky. To be the coach at Kentucky and get what I get, you can't be a 35-year-old coach whose never been fired. I've been fired.
If you recruit a kid, and you're promising him the world, how in the world are you going to coach him in that short a period of time to do that?
You wish there was more consistency about how they do things in the NCAA.
More than half the G League is going to be high school kids that are trying to make it. I hope I'm wrong. I absolutely hope I'm wrong.
People want to see how we get teams to come together so quickly. They want to see how we get young guys to play so hard and so unselfish. I'm fine with that. I have no problem sharing that.
If I have the choice between experience and talent, I'm taking talent every time.
I have bobby pins everywhere.
If they're out of high school, and they can go directly to the NBA and get drafted and get millions of dollars, I'm for it 100 percent. Just let's not devalue education. Let's just not devalue it.
What our kids learn to do is fight. So when you watch a Devin Booker, you look at Tyler Ulis - they fight.
If they're trying to get high school kids to go to the D-League, I will be shouting from mountaintops saying, 'What is this going to do to a generation of kids who say, 'All right, I'm going to do this,' you get one or two years to make it, and now you're out without any opportunities. Who's taking care of those kids now?'
The guy who started on third base and gets home and acts like he hit a homer - that guy doesn't impress me.
Some of the best kids I coach were raised by a grandmother who was so firm that they understood.
I'm not a big proponent of the league tournament.
In a normal season, the sixth man always seems to get the most minutes on my team.
They want it all - all As, all wins by 20, and want the highest GPA. Don't coach at Kentucky if you can't accept that.
