The Cavs are interested in Kelvin Sampson as their head coach. That Kelvin Sampson? Really?
After causing tumult and disappointment at Oklahoma and Indiana, Kelvin Sampson departed the college basketball coaching ranks for an assistant's role in the NBA. That such a polarizing figure might be a legitimate candidate to replace Mike Brown is baffling to Bill Livingston.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The media bus had just left the Georgia Dome in Atlanta at the 2002 Final Four, stranding me and the ESPN commentator and former Duke All-American, Jay Bilas.
It was the day before the 2002 national championship game. Even though we were staying at different hotels, we hailed a cab and split the cost. After introducing myself and trading some small talk, I said, referring to the semifinal game the previous night between Indiana and Oklahoma, "Did you find it hard to believe that Kelvin Sampson didn't press Tom Coverdale?"
Coverdale was the Indiana point guard. He was gutty, gritty and might have been given the nickname "Peg Leg" by that stage of the Hoosiers' season. Sampson was the Oklahoma coach.
"Why would he do that?" Bilas said. "He hasn't pressed all year."
"Well, because Coverdale has such a bad ankle that he was practically hopping the ball up the court," I said.
"He would have to change the way he has played all year," Bilas said.
"Are you saying he doesn't have good enough athletes at Oklahoma to press a guy who is playing on one leg?" I said, incredulously.
Bilas stuck to his points. I stuck to mine. But I had learned a valuable lesson. Never get into arguments critical of coaches with ESPN college basketball personalities. At least, not with the ones who are on the air. They are nothing but apologists for the coaches, who are their sources.
I also learned something else at that Final Four: Kelvin Sampson, as a game tactician, was a lot like Samson in the Bible after his buzz cut.
Now reports are that Kelvin Sampson is a serious candidate to be the Cavaliers' head coach. That Kelvin Sampson? Really?
I think back to what happened at the Final Four eight years ago, to the poor coaching job I thought he had done, and to the damage he caused to both of the schools who had played in that semifinal. And I have to believe Cavs owner Dan Gilbert can't be serious.
At Oklahoma, Sampson eventually brought the wrath of the NCAA down on the program for making, along with members of his staff, over 550 improper phone calls to 17 different recruits.
Then, as the carpet-bomber of college basketball, Sampson brought the wrath of the NCAA down on Indiana, the most storied program in the Big Ten, for making 10 illegal conference calls to recruits.
That Kelvin Sampson? Really?
What's the attraction, other than hiring a guy who fell upward with even more vim than John Calipari has done at Kentucky? There might be blazing ruins in the rear-view mirror, but coach Cal and coach Kel danced away from the messes to better jobs. At least for a while.
But it didn't last for Sampson, whom Indiana fired in 2008. His gravity defiance in college basketball ended then too, with a five-year coaching ban handed down by the NCAA. Any school hiring him before 2013 would have to "show cause" why his punishment had been served.
Now he is an assistant coach with the Milwaukee Bucks. And reportedly he is a candidate to fall upward again, maybe all the way into the Cavs' job.
What, is John Lucas not interested?
If fans worried about the ability of Tom Izzo, a national championship coach with six Final Four appearances and a reputation for running a clean program at Michigan State, to adjust to the NBA, how much more should they worry about Sampson? Particularly because he won't be able to recruit, legally or illegally, in the NBA. He would have to take what's already here and what the draft delivers, provided the Cavaliers can buy a pick.
Gilbert ought to remember what Indiana President Michael McRobbie said when Sampson was told to pack his bags in Bloomington. He said hiring him was "a risk that should not have been taken."