Second Chances Aren't For Everybody
Dennis Dodd of CBS Sportsline wrote an excellent piece on former Cleveland State basketball coach Kevin Mackey.
Here's a guy who upset Indiana in the first round as a 14 seed in 1986, got busted for hookers and blow in 1991 and was never heard from again. The question, and Dodd really didn't answer this, is why?
Look at some of the coaches out there who have come back after bad things have happened to them. Dodd mentioned a few like Bob Huggins, Larry Eustachy and Mike Price, and left out a few like Wimp Sanderson, Bob Knight, Eddie Sutton, and my favorite, Todd Bozeman. So why Mackey?
Bruce Pearl was involved in a situation with Illinois and Iowa where as an Iowa assistant, he turned in Illinois assistant coach Jimmy Collins for cheating. Pearl actually taped phone calls involving Deon Thomas. The damage to Pearl's reputation was so bad, he had to toil as a D2 coach at the University of Southern Indiana for nine years before UW-Milwaukee hired him at the D1 level. Many have theorized that Pearl was being blackballed from D1. But even he got another shot.
Kelvin Sampson will be back, maybe as soon as next year. Maybe not at a big school, but some mid-major is sure to hire him and allow him to rehab his image long enough to get back to the top tier again. Other coaches who have made mistakes have also been given second chances.
Yes, hookers and blow are bad, but so is having your coach letting a stripper use his credit card. So is your coach going to off campus parties and drinking openly with students. So is your coach sending Fed Ex packages with money to recruits. Yet, all of these coaches were re-hired eventually. Mackey has been out of college coaching for almost 18 years. He's clean and sober and has paid his debt to society. Isn't there any program willing to take a chance on this guy who was 142-69 at Cleveland State?
I would think a man like Kevin Mackey who rose so quickly and then fell so hard and so fast would be a good example to young men about what happens when you think you are bulletproof. He could tell kids that there was a day in July of 1990 where he had a great job, a fantastic future and a wonderful life. And then, it all blew up in his face because he never thought he'd get caught and then never thought he would get fired.
Getting fired is a tough thing to go through. Never getting the chance to do what you love again is far greater than that. Even though what Kevin Mackey did was inexcusable, the true measure of a man is to see how they handle adversity. Kevin Mackey didn't fall further into the abyss of drugs or put a gun in his mouth wanting to end it all. He went to rehab, cleaned himself up and has moved on. Those that won't give him a chance because of 1990 should too.
Here's a guy who upset Indiana in the first round as a 14 seed in 1986, got busted for hookers and blow in 1991 and was never heard from again. The question, and Dodd really didn't answer this, is why?
Look at some of the coaches out there who have come back after bad things have happened to them. Dodd mentioned a few like Bob Huggins, Larry Eustachy and Mike Price, and left out a few like Wimp Sanderson, Bob Knight, Eddie Sutton, and my favorite, Todd Bozeman. So why Mackey?
Bruce Pearl was involved in a situation with Illinois and Iowa where as an Iowa assistant, he turned in Illinois assistant coach Jimmy Collins for cheating. Pearl actually taped phone calls involving Deon Thomas. The damage to Pearl's reputation was so bad, he had to toil as a D2 coach at the University of Southern Indiana for nine years before UW-Milwaukee hired him at the D1 level. Many have theorized that Pearl was being blackballed from D1. But even he got another shot.
Kelvin Sampson will be back, maybe as soon as next year. Maybe not at a big school, but some mid-major is sure to hire him and allow him to rehab his image long enough to get back to the top tier again. Other coaches who have made mistakes have also been given second chances.
Yes, hookers and blow are bad, but so is having your coach letting a stripper use his credit card. So is your coach going to off campus parties and drinking openly with students. So is your coach sending Fed Ex packages with money to recruits. Yet, all of these coaches were re-hired eventually. Mackey has been out of college coaching for almost 18 years. He's clean and sober and has paid his debt to society. Isn't there any program willing to take a chance on this guy who was 142-69 at Cleveland State?
I would think a man like Kevin Mackey who rose so quickly and then fell so hard and so fast would be a good example to young men about what happens when you think you are bulletproof. He could tell kids that there was a day in July of 1990 where he had a great job, a fantastic future and a wonderful life. And then, it all blew up in his face because he never thought he'd get caught and then never thought he would get fired.
Getting fired is a tough thing to go through. Never getting the chance to do what you love again is far greater than that. Even though what Kevin Mackey did was inexcusable, the true measure of a man is to see how they handle adversity. Kevin Mackey didn't fall further into the abyss of drugs or put a gun in his mouth wanting to end it all. He went to rehab, cleaned himself up and has moved on. Those that won't give him a chance because of 1990 should too.
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