By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino talked about why he turned down the offer of Panathinaikos Athens to return to the team for 2019-2020.
In a podcast interview with The Vegas Take, Pitino said that he was offered to remain the head coach of Panathinaikos and also become club president but some personal matters prevented him from returning to Greece.
“I was offered the president’s job as well as the head coaching job of Panathinaikos,” Pitino said. “If it wasn’t of some personal issues back home with a grandchild and some of my children, I would’ve probably gone back.
“I will take this year off and hopefully the NCAA will get around to speaking with me and find out,” Pitino added in reference to his implicated involvement with the NCAA scandal of 2017.
Pitino won the Greek championship and Cup titles with Panathinaikos in his first overseas stint. An experience he enjoyed quite much.
“I think certainly Milan and Italy had great food,” Pitino answered when he was asked about which place in Europe had the best food. “I loved Moscow. I was shocked at how nice Moscow was and shocked at how nice the beaches were in Tel Aviv. I wasn’t crazy about Istanbul, just because of the traffic. The European side was a little bit nicer than the Asian side. But you couldn’t move with the traffic. Nobody spoke any English at all.”