As a stud high school senior in Memphis in 2006, the Nets’ Thaddeus Young fell under the recruitment gaze of John Calipari, then at the University of Memphis. Unlike most, Young said no.
“He recruited me extremely hard when I was in high school,” Young said Tuesday. “It was hard not to go there. That was one of the biggest decisions of my life, not to stay in Memphis and decide to go to Georgia Tech.”
Calipari, who has won a national championship at Kentucky, has been mentioned as a candidate to return to the Nets but tweeted intentions to remain with the Wildcats.
“He’s a tough coach,” said Young, who attended many Memphis practices. “A lot of guys that were on the team, they were my friends. I played AAU with some of them. Like I said, it was a tough decision. I had a great relationship with Coach Cal and his coaching staff. … Those guys were recruiting me tough, and I had been around them since I was in the eighth grade. So that was the crazy thing about it.”
Young said he rejected Calipari because of a desire to get away from home.
“I think he’s a good coach,” Young said. “He’s done a hell of a job in coaching all the teams he’s been with as far as building up programs and keeping them at the top at an elite level.”
Lionel Hollins, fired Sunday as Nets coach, expressed his thanks to the organization via Twitter on Tuesday.
“Thank you Brooklyn,” he tweeted. “I’m extremely grateful to everyone involved for the opportunity. As Tom Coughlin says, no ‘goodbye’ just ‘Next time’…”
Joe Johnson did not practice Tuesday because of a left thigh contusion. He’s listed as “probable” for the Knicks game Wednesday at Barclays Center. “Just giving him a little rest,” said interim head coach Tony Brown.
Brown, who played for the Nets in 1986-87, had his first practice day as the interim head coach.
“Running some new play sets that we didn’t have in the playbook, stuff that I like for certain guys like Brook [Lopez] and Thad,” Brown said of his first-practice approach. “Piece by piece we’re just going to work on things that will help us on both ends of the floor.”