Head coach John Calipari has signed a new seven-year deal worth $52.5 million guaranteed announced by Kentucky on Thursday.
Calipari plans on continuing his duties as the head coach at the University of Kentucky. However, the Cleveland Cavaliers had other hopeful plans for him. It has been reported that the Cavaliers made a generous offer to Calipari, partially in order to sway LeBron James into coming back to play for the team he left four years ago.
It is known that James and the Kentucky coach are good friends. An estimated offer that Cleveland made was a 10-year $80 million deal. Not only was Calipari offered to coach the team, he was offered to be the team president as well, reported ESPN.
According to Yahoo Sports,
Calipari would have taken the Cleveland offer but decided to stay in Kentucky because Wildcat guards Andrew and Aaron Harrison did not go pro. Negotiations were tight until the end but a deal was not made, confirmed by CBS Sports. Cleveland has tried to hire other college coaches, such as Billy Donovan and Tom Izzo, who coach at Florida and Michigan State, respectively.