Great article on Calipari and his relationship with his players

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What is it about Calipari that allows him to connect with 15, 16 and 17-year-olds better than any coach in recent memory? How was he able to bag a record six McDonald's All-Americans in 2013 -- the foundation of a team that will play in the Final Four on Saturday -- and follow it up with four more Burger Boys in 2014?

"I think that just the way he is," Towns said before the McDonald's Game. "He never lies to you and he keeps it straight with you. Cal really does a great job of always being honest. That's the way the program is, it just runs on honesty."

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Unlike so many of his peers, Calipari isn't scared of the NBA and its deep pockets. He embraces it. He thinks about the players before he thinks about himself. Calipari wants his players to get rich; he's only there to help their cause.

It's been this way for years, long before Calipari arrived at Kentucky in 2009 and immediately turned Lexington into the top breeding ground for future professional basketball talent. It may have started in 2002, when Cal essentially pushed freshman guard Dajuan Wagner out the door because he knew it was in his best interest.

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Take Calipari’s situation with Dajuan Wagner as a primary example. Wagner, one of the nation’s top recruits in 2001, was the first superstar to pair up with Calipari in nearly a decade. With Wagner, Memphis won twenty-seven games and looked poised for a deep tournament run if Wagner would return for his sophomore campaign. Still, Calipari revoked Wagner’s scholarship for his sophomore season because Wagner had been wavering on whether to declare for the NBA Draft or to return to school. Calipari knew it was best for his star to enter the draft and make millions of dollars while his stock was at an all-time high. By taking the decision out of his player’s hands, Calipari’s foresight salvaged Wagner’s career. The sixth overall pick in the 2002 NBA Draft was discovered to suffer from ulcerative colitis just two seasons into his NBA career. Had Calipari not forced Wagner to take the riches of the NBA, Wagner’s illness likely would have been discovered before he ever earned millions.

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Honesty. It sounds like a forgettable cliche coming from the mouth of a teenager, but it's deeper and more meaningful than it appears. Calipari tells his recruits if they work hard and succeed at Kentucky, it's not going to take very long for them to become incomprehensibly rich. That openness has gone a long way towards making Kentucky the most powerful program in college basketball.

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