Rick Pitino has won another championship.
The Naismith Hall of Fame coach, who was dismissed by Louisville last fall after the school was named in an FBI s probe into college basketball and signed on last December to coach Panathinaikos of Athens until the end of the season, led his new team to the Greek Cup Championship by defeating PAOK in the final, 79-73, Sunday.
Panathinaikos competes in the continent’s top-tier EuroLeague. The club’s roster includes former Florida star and Memphis Grizzlies point guard Nick Calathes, former Ohio State forward Deshaun Thomas and Kansas guard Keith Langford. Calathes was named the game’s Most Outstanding Player after scoring 19 points and nine assists.
Panathinaikos reached the final after their semi-final opponent, Olympiakos, forfeited the game when their coach David Blatt and his team refused to come out in the second half in protest of the game’s officiating.
Pitino, who coached both the NBA New York Knicks and the Boston Celtics, won two NCAA championships at Kentucky and Louisville in 1996 and 2013. He reached a total of seven Final Fours at three different schools—Providence in 1987, Kentucky in 1993, 1996 and 1996 and Louisville in 2005, 2012 and 2013.
His European adventure has been an attempt to sanitize his reputation as he attempts to get back into coaching in either the NBA or college basketball.
