We’re not particularly optimistic

So.

According to Rick Pitino, his former college coach, Antoine Walker is “eyeing an NBA comeback.”

Well, as Walker has agreed to pay a trio of Vegas casinos $900,000 to settle three bad-check charges, it’s clear he needs the money. So he’s got motivation.

On the other hand, Walker was a little chubby even in his All-Star days and was never known for his work ethic. Now at age 33, two years after retirement, he’s going whip himself into NBA shape? This is someone who made some $110 million from NBA contracts alone and now is in debt. So I’m guessing “self-discipline” isn’t his middle name.

Here’s a prediction: The “comeback” goes nowhere.

What they say vs. what they're thinking

Rick Pitino, at left, above, on his facing up to his little “indiscretion”:

“(Like I tell my players) When you have a problem, if you tell the truth, the problem becomes part of your past. If you lie it becomes part of your future.”

Don’t think about what I did — think about how brave and wonderful I am for telling the truth at the point where I have absolutely no choice in the matter.

“When 9/11 hit, you needed a community to get you over it. In New York City, it was easy because everybody knew the devastation of that and they got each other over it. In Louisville, the impact wasn't felt like New York City, but I needed this community to help me get over it.”

Raising the specter of 9/11 might not be the classiest thing I can do but hey, it worked for the Bush administration for years …

Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich, third from left, above: “Coach Pitino has been truthful with us about this matter all along and we stand by him and his family during this process.”

More to the point, we stand behind Pitino’s 553 collegiate wins, his national championship and his five Final Four appearances.

Louisville president Dr. James Ramsey, second from left, above: “Regardless of the truth or falsehood of specific actions that have been attributed to the coach, he's clearly made errors in judgment that have come under intense public scrutiny. We can't ignore these errors in judgment …”

But we will, just the same.

Friday column: A few words on Pitino’s 'indiscretion'

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.