Browsing Tag

Leaving a Company

Career

It’s Nothing Personal, It’s Just Business

April 5, 2009

For almost a decade, John Calipari led the Memphis Tigers Men’s Basketball team to multiple NCAA basketball tournaments, several Sweet 16’s, was named the Conference USA coach of the year four times and most recently was named the Naismith College Coach of the Year. With a resume like that, it makes you wonder why people now consider him a ‘traitor’ and ‘sellout’ after all that he’s done for the University of Memphis and its basketball program. While there are obviously two sides to every story, what happened between Memphis and John Calipari leaving for the University of Kentucky happens everywhere.

John Calipari saw an opportunity. Not just any opportunity, but the opportunity of a lifetime. The opportunity to coach one of the most revered college teams in the NCAA and one marked with tradition and full of history. When the University of Kentucky came calling, John Calipari packed his bags. In the perfect world, coaches would fall in love with their schools and never leave, but as everyone knows, nothing is perfect. The University of Kentucky gave John Calipari a chance at something he so desperately wanted: a Championship.

In the business world, most everyone can relate to John Calipari’s situation in one way or another. When a job opportunity comes your way that pays better and gives you a chance to put yourself in a better situation, instinct says you should take it. If that is the case, then what did John Calipari do wrong? He will make more money and with a bigger name school and John’s name on the Mens basketball program, getting recruits to come to Kentucky will be simple. From the business perspective, John made the right choice in leaving, but from the fans and others views, he is simply a ‘sellout.’
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