Rick Pitino led Panathinaikos to a 96-84 win over CSKA Moscow in his EuroLeague debut on Friday, and the Hall of Famer wasted no time showing his new team the level of passion that helped make him one of the most successful coaches of all time.
And by “passion,” we mean Pitino is already lacing into his players. During one rough stretch of play for Panathinaikos, Pitino felt that there was too much standing around and not enough ball movement. He let the team hear about it with a fiery speech on the bench.
Rick Pitino is not messing around!#GameON pic.twitter.com/jeDCSLoPVj
— EuroLeague (@EuroLeague) December 28, 2018
Pitino’s style of coaching may make it difficult for him to accomplish his long-term goal, but he’s not going to change. As long as it works during his time in the EuroLeague, there should be opportunities for him to get back into coaching in the U.S.
