Report: Former Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino will take job in Greece - USA TODAY

Lucas Aulbach and Jeff Zillgitt Louisville Courier Journal

Published 2:51 PM EST Dec 20, 2018

Former Louisville coach Rick Pitino has reached an agreement to coach Greek basketball power Panathinaikos, a person with direct knowledge of the deal told USA TODAY Sports. The person requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly until the deal was signed.

He is expected to join the team after Christmas.

Pitino served as Kentucky's basketball coach from 1989 to 1997 and coached at Louisville from 2001 to 2017. He was fired last September after Louisville was named in the FBI's investigation into college basketball recruiting.

Panathinaikos, which is in Athens, fired its coach, Xavi Pascual, and moved quickly to lure Pitino. The team is 8-0 in the Greek league but is 6-7 and in 10th place in the prominent Euroleague.

Names on the team that might be familiar: Former Florida and NBA guard Nick Calathes, former Kansas guard Keith Langford and former Ohio State forward DeShaun Thomas. Former NBA lottery pick Georgios Papagiannis, along with Thanasis Antetokounmpo, brother of NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo, are also on the roster.

ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski first reported on the deal Thursday afternoon. 

Pitino has spent the past year away from basketball, publishing a book at one point and speaking with several college teams and coaches in an advisory capacity. He had gone back and forth on whether he planned to coach again since his firing, saying at times he was finished with the profession and at other times he would be open to accepting a position with a college or professional team.

“I wake up every morning thinking (to) get on my gym shorts and head into work,” Pitino said in October. “That’s difficult. You can’t get over that. I thought long and hard about it and I said, ‘You know what, if I’m missing it this much, I need to give it a shot.’”

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