John Calipari expressed interest in Knicks after Phil Jackson fired, per ESPN

It’s summertime, so cue in the John Calipari NBA rumors.

However, most of the rumors we see each summer are that of ‘Team X is interested in Calipari.’ Those quickly turn into ‘Calipari not interested,’ but this report from ESPN’s Ian Begley is a little different.

According to Begley, Calipari has reached out to the New York Knicks to express interest in becoming the team’s president of basketball operations.

Kentucky head coach John Calipari reached out to knicks through intermediaries to express interest in the Knicks presidency, per ESPN league sources. The Knicks do not have interest in Calipari at the moment, per league sources.

Presumably, Calipari would want to coach as well if he took over as president. The Knicks parted ways with president Phil Jackson earlier this week. Current GM Steve Mills is handling the club's day-to-day operations and is expected to lead them through free agency.

It’s strange seeing the script flipped for once and Calipari being interested while the NBA team in question is not interested. It would be hard to turn down a chance to be an NBA head coach and team president, giving him full control over the franchise.

Almost all of these Calipari-to-NBA rumors have turned into nothing, but this sounds like one of, if not the most intriguing opportunity Calipari would have had to jump back into the NBA.

Saying all of this, I doubt Calipari would leave in the middle of the summer while coaching Team USA’s U19 Team to join the mess in New York. He’d also be leaving a chance to coach his son, Brad Calipari, for three more years in Lexington. That doesn’t seem likely. It also would be a pretty low move to leave your college job when we’re almost into July.

And even if Calipari is interested, it’s hard for even the most dysfunctional of NBA franchises to give complete control to a college coach who has already flamed out of the league before. It doesn’t appear the Knicks are willing to do so.

Maybe someday Calipari will return to the NBA, but this doesn’t feel like the year to do it.