Louisville head basketball coach Rick Pitino’s little “indiscretion” — his restaurant dalliance with a stranger and his giving her abortion money — and this week’s responses to it all do a remarkable job of illustrating where we are in 2009.
These are the elements that stand out:
Worship of celebrity. Pitino was 50 when Karen Cunagin — now Karen Sypher — saw him in a Louisville restaurant in 2003. Pitino is not a bad-looking man, but I doubt a stranger would have made a play for him — and then had sex with him on the eatery floor — if he hadn’t been Rick Pitino, state of Kentucky basketball god.
Sense of entitlement. The flip side of that worship is a sense of entitlement, a feeling by some people that rules don’t apply to them. Are there rules against a married father of five doing what Pitino did? Well, yes, there are.
Callous disregard for life. As far as we know, Pitino, who proclaims himself a devout Catholic, took no responsibility for the life he created with Sypher; nor at Wednesday’s news conference, I did I hear a single word of regret for the ending of that life.
Overemphasis on winning. Pitino made more than one reference to how successful a basketball coach he’s been, a blatant plea to the Louisville faithful to overlook his off-court behavior and focus instead on his winning percentage.
Use of duplicity. Pitino’s lawyer quibbled with a report that said the coach had given Sypher money for an abortion. No, no, he said, the coach had given her money for health insurance — which she then used to have an abortion. Are we really expected to believe that Pitino would have forked over three grand if Sypher hadn’t been pregnant? Please.
Hypocrisy. University president Dr. James Ramsay praised Pitino as a role model for youth, but Ramsay knows Pitino no longer has any moral authority — none — to wield as he tries to guide his young players.
Enabling behavior. Athletic director Tom Jurich said he was “a million percent” behind Pitino.
Love of money. Pitino has made millions of dollars for the university, and don’t think that isn’t playing a role in the university’s decision to, in Jurich’s words, “stand by him and his family … ”
Uncaring use of others. From what we know about Sypher, including her alleged attempt to extort money from Pitino and her apparently invented rape allegations against him, she is a very troubled woman. That does not mitigate the seriousness of what Pitino did; it makes it worse.
Indifference. Peyton Siva, an incoming recruit, made it clear that Pitino’s actions didn’t affect him at all. “I ain’t leaving,” Siva said on his Twitter account. “Rick personal life is his life. He’s here to coach me and is the best teach of hoop to me! So like the fans say, ‘Go Cards.’ ”
“Go Cards,” indeed. After all, how can you fire a “best teach of hoop” over a simple indiscretion? You can’t, not in America in 2009.
Contact Jim Gordon at gjames43@msn.com.
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