So apparently Rick Pitino is in some trouble? Seriously: It’s a big deal! Big enough, in fact, to attract the attention of Rupert Murdoch’s personal refuse basin, The New York Post, as well as the New York Daily News, which people still read. The Post story is a thing of beauty, really: Transcribing nearly verbatim Karen Sypher’s exhaustive litany of sex, phantom appetizers and date rape.
But why all of the East Coast attention? This is because (1) Pitino coached The New York Knicks for some time and (2) he has repeatedly invoked the tragedy of September 11th to serve as an analogy to the “situation” he’s currently going through, which New Yorkers don’t enjoy. My favorite (albeit misogynistically titled) analysis of this strange phenomenon is “How is 9/11 Related to Banging Some Skank in a Restaurant?”
During the apology, Pitino said, “I came here at a very difficult time. When 9/11 hit, you needed a community to get you over it. In New York City, it was easy because everybody knew the devastation of that and they got each other over it. In Louisville, the impact wasn’t felt like New York City, but I needed the community to help me get over it. The university officials and my friends and loved ones have helped me through this very difficult time.”
It was not the first time Pitino referenced the 9/11 attacks in regards to the Karen Sypher case. He brought claims of extortion to the FBI in March of this year and later said, “But if I can get through 9/11, I can get through anything in my life, and I got through 9/11, and there’s nothing ever that’s going to come close to that.”
Pitino’s brother-in-law was killed in the attack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. I cannot imagine the pain that a family would feel after such a tragic incident. However, I think it is a subject not suited for reference when talking about adultery.
Since his days at the University of Kentucky, I have always admired Pitino as a basketball coach. Now, I see him as a scumbag. Cheating on your wife is bad enough. Giving the woman you banged at a restaurant money for an abortion is worse. Comparing it all to dealing with the grief of thousands of people losing their lives is asinine. [Bleacher Report]
Let the healing begin? Not likely: This garbage will (perhaps rightfully?) dominate the Louisville news media cycle for the next 1,000 years.
3 Comments
why is it worse, i wonder, to give the money for the abortion? should the “skank” have to pay for it herself, just ’cause?
I guess it depends, ultimately, on your sense of “morality” and therefore your politics. Whatever happens between two (hopefully) consenting adults in the privacy of a closed restaurant is their business, but that won’t stop people from demonizing or defending. However, it was awful chivalrous of Pitino to at least offer, dont’cha think?
I do think. Although my understanding is that abortions don’t cost near $3,000 unless they’re very late term, and then you have to have a medical reason for it…