John Calipari is Trying to Save College Basketball's Soul

It is generally not in the interest of NCAA basketball programs to have their players leave early for the NBA. Players are cheap labor for institutions that stand to net seven figures for a single NCAA Tournament win. If you were running a pyramid scheme, you wouldn't want to have to replace the bottom layer of your pyramid every year.

Unless you're John Calipari, Kentucky coach and surprising player's rights advocate. He has made Kentucky into a finishing school for the most NBA-ready of prospects and has a national title, two other Final Four appearances, and, most importantly, 18 players drafted into the NBA during his five-year tenure. That on-court C.V. would be impressive for anyone, but keeping it up requires him to stock his ranks with elite players every year. Recruiting is a dark and imprecise art. As pedigreed as Kentucky is, it isn't necessarily going to be right for every elite player every year.

This year, however, it is. For all the successes of Wildcat teams led by John Wall and Anthony Davis, this current crop is probably Calipari's deepest squad. They are a colossus of a team, currently 19-0 with the best defense in the country. In their third game of the season, Kentucky smoked #5 Kansas 72-40. With no more ranked opponents on the docket, they could go undefeated and it wouldn't be a surprise if they did. These Wildcats feature nine five-star recruits, including 7'0" center Karl-Anthony Towns, who some see as the best professional prospect in 2015's draft. For reference, there are about 20 five-star recruits in each year's recruiting class. According to Eric Bossi of Rivals.com, "everyone in Kentucky's freshman class is more than likely to make the NBA."

Calipari has always been one of the best recruiters, but each of his previous teams had Final Four appearances vacated due to NCAA violations. UMass forfeited its 1996 tournament after NCAA prosecutors discovered that Marcus Camby had accepted $40,000 from an agent. Derrick Rose allegedly had someone take his SAT test for him in order to enroll at Memphis, and their entire 2008 season, including an appearance in the NCAA title game, was voided. Calipari was implicated in neither incident, but it's inadvisable you take the NCAA's word on matters of corruption. And why would you, when they also penalized Memphis for allowing Rose's brother Reggie to travel with the team to away games.

The multi-decade history of Calipari's players running into trouble with the NCAA would seem to paint Calipari as a sleazy character, using the NCAA's loose culture of exploitation simply to accrue as much power as he can. And while he is arguably the most powerful NCAA basketball coach, he also appears to genuinely care about his players. Calipari has expressed his disgust with the bureaucracy of the NCAA and its exploitation of teenagers. In his 2014 book Players First: Coaching From The Inside Out, he likened the NCAA to the collapsing Soviet Union, and advocated for stipends and insurance coverage for college athletes.

Now, Calipari certainly has a personal stake in making sure players are paid. Kentucky is one of the country's richest programs, so they can afford any payments and theoretically come out the other end with a competitive advantage. But his player advocacy isn't a cynical recruiting ploy. He maintains close relationships with many former players, and although he is against the one-and-done rule, he encourages players who are ready for the NBA to go get paid. Dude even staged an NFL-style pro day for his team before this season. Sure, some of the tone his advocacy takes on helps advance his own agenda, but it benefits players even more. It's not charity, but it's symbiotic.

Given his clout among players at all levels, Calipari is perfectly situated to advocate for NCAA reform. Bossi agreed, telling me "I would think that Calipari is among a group of coaches like himself, Coach K, Roy Williams, Bill Self and a few others who could at the least help lead a charge."

Of those listed coaches, Calipari is in charge of the biggest program and has been the most vocal about his views on paying players. The path towards justice for NCAA players is going to be long and complicated. But having a coach like John Calipari on the side of labor—and seeing his Wildcats teams make a mockery of the system by sending lottery picks to the NBA in droves—is going to make their case stronger and harder to ignore.