Rick Pitino may be one of NCAA men’s basketball’s most successful coaches, but he is also completely unhireable. During his NCAA coaching career, Rick Pitino coached at the Universities of Kentucky, Providence, and finally Louisville. (D’Andrea, 2018) During his time at these schools, however, Pitino had multiple run-ins with the NCAA rulebook. When we discussed American societal values in class on September 11, 2018, we mentioned that success was one of the key societal values by which Americans live, and Rick Pitino is a perfect example of one of those individuals. Pitino has been notorious for recruiting his players while using illegal practices such as paying for sex workers for recruits and players. These horrendous acts clearly display that Pitino was willing to go to any lengths necessary to be successful in his coaching career. During our class discussion about values on September 11, 2018 we also mentioned the difficulties Americans face when trying to develop clear values because of the questionable role models we have in our society. Rick Pitino was in a high visibility position while coaching during his entire NCAA career, which means he was most likely a role model to many people, players, and children nationwide. We also mentioned during our values discussion in class on September 11, 2018 that American society heavily values individualism. Pitino is a perfect example of somebody who values individualism because he clearly cared more about his own well-being instead of anybody else’s. A perfect example of this came in 2003 when Pitino had an affair with the wife of his own equipment manager at Louisville. I believe this was an extremely selfish move on Pitino’s part because he placed his own pleasure over the happiness and trust of his players, co-workers, and University. Rick Pitino is a perfect example of how American’s societal values are not always positive things in the world of sport.
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