There appears to be no one who hates the term lifetime contract more than John Calipari.
“There’s no such thing as a lifetime contract,” Calipari said at Tuesday’s Kentucky media day. “Will you guys? Please, they could fire me in a year, and that was my lifetime, right there. I mean, there’s no, there’s no such thing.”
While Calipari can say he did not sign a lifetime contract, he can’t deny that he signed an extension that will make him the head coach of the Wildcats for as long as he desires.
With that, Calipari expressed his excitement for a second decade at Kentucky at Tuesday’s Kentucky basketball media day.
“I’ve been here 10 years. Kind of thinking back, it’s been a pretty good run. So now going forward has been I’m, this is the second tour, let’s see what happens now. That, what happened for those 10 years are done. Final Fours, national champion, all the stuff, it’s done, league.
“Now, what happens in the next 10? How do we grow as a program? How do we keep getting better as a staff? As a coach, how do I keep leading better, communicating better, what do I do and forget with that.
“Let’s move to this next tour. This next 10. So that’s been my mentality. And whether it be in recruiting, where we go back and say, okay, what are some things that we can do different, because what’s happened is people kind of attack how we recruit and basically because I’m transparent in what we do and what we say.
“So now it’s, okay, what do we do that’s a little bit different in our approach. So but I’m looking forward to it, I’m excited, I feel refreshed. I like this team, great group of kids.”
Calipari will kickoff decade No. 2 as Kentucky head coach with an exciting group of freshman guided by Tyrese Maxey and a veteran group led by point guard Ashton Hagans.