The seemingly-endless and reoccurring NBA hat dance has started again. When there’s a team in turmoil in need of a savior, link the now vacated job to John Calipari.

Next up: the dysfunctional yet still flush with cash Brooklyn Nets.

After firing coach Lionel Hollins and “re-assigning” GM Billy King, Calipari’s name has once again been linked with an open NBA job, and he responded to it in the way he always does:

In the unlikely event he does leave Kentucky in the middle of a seven year, $52.5 million contract, he’d probably be looking for something similar to try and right the beached ship in Brooklyn. His agent Wes Wesley told ESPN it would take no less than, “$120 million guaranteed” to even consider it.  

If you’re wondering, only four NBA players make more than that this season, according to Spotrac. 

Might he be able to get his army of former Kentucky players onside to play for him in the NBA? Many suggest it, but the likelihood he could “recruit” an NBA team together is still unlikely.

While the Calipari links to open NBA jobs appear almost like clockwork, there may be the tiniest bit of smoke here. Calipari did coach the New Jersey Nets from 1996 to 1999 after leaving UMass, and Kentucky has not only played at Barclays Center recently but will played in the newly-renovated Nassau Coliseum next fall.

This effort has been led by Nets CEO Brett Yormark, who some in the NBA believe won’t have as much input in the re-imagining of the Nets as owner Mikhail Prokhorov tries to re-start the moribund franchise. That won’t stop NBA insiders from thinking Calipari has a chance to jump from Kentucky to the league for this or any job, or sports columnists from thinking he can save the franchise, since each column is almost pre-written with the team names easily swapped out.

So will John Calipari be coaching in the NBA next year? He has 52.5 million reasons not to. Though that number will probably go up with every new column written.

[ESPN]

About Matt Lichtenstadter

Recent Maryland graduate. I've written for many sites including World Soccer Talk, GianlucaDiMarzio.com, Testudo Times, Yahoo's Puck Daddy Blog and more. Houndstooth is still cool, at least to me. Follow me @MattsMusings1 on Twitter, e-mail me about life and potential jobs at matthewaaron9 at Yahoo dot com.