Pitino, Hamilton Under Fire -- Until Next Scandal Heats Up

The plan was to write about Josh Hamilton in this space today, about the recovering alcoholic outfielder falling back into scandalous ways in a bar. That was going to be the discussion here, about the photos of Hamilton on various Web sites and the standards for what is or isn't worthy of being reported.

But these revelations involving Rick Pitino came along and knocked Hamilton right off the marquee. And if we're ranking scandal, which sadly has become a necessary exercise these days, Pitino's is more egregious.

Hamilton's abuse of alcohol and drugs, reasonable people will agree, qualifies as an illness. Having sex with a woman (who isn't your wife) in a restaurant after drinking too much, which Pitino admits to doing, is simply the epitome of bad judgment. Pitino isn't some backwater kid fighting every disadvantage in the world to make the big leagues; he's an intelligent and savvy coach whom nothing gets past, who knows the costs and consequences of every action and reaction. What the hell was he thinking?

Their cases are similar on some surface level in that they involve the stumble and fall of sports celebrities, but they're very different on any deeper examination. Hamilton has had a couple of good seasons in the majors; his greatest performance came in a Home Run Derby contest he didn't even win. Subsequently, a great many people invested in his story of faith, redemption and sobriety. And very quickly, the celebrity-making machinery, including a book and at least one TV special, turned a ballplayer of relatively little consequence into a semi-big deal. The rise was barely justifiable and now this latest fall, which he admitted to his wife and his employer, has been quite the crash landing.

Hamilton's explanation, that he isn't a hypocrite, only a human being, rings true.

It's difficult to know what to make of Pitino's transgression. He committed no crime; in fact, the woman making claims that Pitino sexually assaulted her (which he denies) was indicted in May on charges of conspiring to extort money from Pitino in exchange for her silence on the allegations. Karen Sypher has zero credibility and seems like a giant sleaze in all this.

But Pitino had so much more to lose . . . starting with his job, which apparently will be spared. Though Pitino could be fired for "acts of moral depravity," University of Louisville officials say they stand with him. And Pitino said Wednesday night that "regardless of how difficult the situation is," he wants to coach "as long as they'll have me, for as long as they'll have me . . . "

So, if there's no more than what we know now, which on its own is pretty salacious, Pitino apparently will be coaching the Louisville Cardinals for the foreseeable future. If you are looking to read a rant that results in the suggestion that Pitino should resign or be fired, you'll have to look elsewhere.

Will his status as coach-icon be diminished in some substantial way?

Perhaps temporarily. Will it be tough to make motivational speeches or keep those photos with the pope in the basketball program's media guide?

Yes, absolutely. Anytime you willingly link yourself to religion then have to confess to this kind of sordid episode, you look like a hypocrite. Will his professional reputation take a hit? Probably not.

Professionally, Pitino is a coach. And professionally he'll be judged, overwhelmingly, by other men who were coaches or are coaches or make a living assessing performance in the arena of basketball. And these men, by and large, don't care about what Pitino did with Sypher in a restaurant banquet.

This notion that the fallout will kill Pitino's recruiting is nonsense, too. Coaches don't persuade kids to come to their schools anymore by sitting with the kid's mama and daddy in the living room. If that happens at all anymore, it does so after the coach has wooed an AAU coach and at least one street agent who have more to do with the kid's basketball life than either parent. Certainly, AAU coaches and street agents couldn't give a damn about the recruiter's sexual preferences.

Of course the whole ordeal is embarrassing, especially to Pitino's wife and children, and it's something that will dog him at certain stops along the road. But these things never sting for as long as they used to, not if you're Bill Clinton or Kobe Bryant or Jon Gosselin or Josh Hamilton or Rick Pitino. By Saturday, very likely, it'll be somebody else's turn to roast in the glare of the temporary spotlight. TMZ will nail somebody at some Hollywood night club or somebody will blog or tweet about some amorous interlude that shouldn't have been. And everybody will go nuts until the next scandal comes along . . . in a time measured by hours, not weeks or even days.

If I sound like a cynic, it's because I've become one when it comes to certain topics, like steroids or personal scandal. I'm desensitized to them. The first time's a stunner, the 75th merits a yawn.

Misbehavior is something that was barely reported until the mid- to late-1970s. There was Josh Hamilton-like behavior on half the road trips for the first 60 years of baseball, we came to find out in recent years. It didn't make the papers. There was no TV or Internet. Nobody much cared until the culture decided that if misbehavior affected performance, it was fair game, a legit story. So for another 25 years we became pretty judgmental and with great sanctimony slapped on the wrist the previous generations of reporters for keeping too many celebrity secrets. Now, I'm wondering if the pendulum has swung too far. Most of these details are things I simply don't want to know and wonder what point it serves to know them.

Don't get me wrong, Pitino is one of the highest-paid state employees in Kentucky, and as such is a state representative, if you will, and certainly the face of the University of Louisville. Is what happened between Sypher and Pitino newsworthy? Yeah, I guess. It should be reported, I suppose. Will it affect Pitino's ability to do his job at the same level he always has? Probably not.

Whatever the case, these discussions about scandal and missteps have become the rule, sadly, instead of the exception and it's not specific to any specific profession. The headline writers might as well get ready for the next transgression right now. The only guy who might benefit from that slip-up is Pitino, looking to get himself bumped from the marquee.