Three years and six days ago, the statement came with the customary Rick Pitino flourish of counterfeit finality. “My passion in basketball started in New York and will end there at Iona College,” he said upon being named the coach of the Gaels. Right state, wrong school, it turned out.
Maybe. There’s no telling whether the St. John’s job Pitino accepted Monday will be the end, either. Even at age 70, he remains a constant coaching flight risk.
When Iona rescued Pitino from Grecian exile, hiring him while an NCAA investigative cloud still hovered over his head, the school probably bought the line. It probably believed his Hall of Fame career would end in the hinterlands of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. How naive.
