College Basketball
Iona Basketball Coach Rick Pitino Contract, Salary, Buyout, and Net Worth
Zach Wolpin is an NBA and NFL expert who's been betting on the league for over three years now. Wolpin has been a fan of the NBA and has been watching for a decade and a half. He covers the latest news and stories surrounding the league daily. His passion in life is watching sports and being able to share that through his sports writing. He has written about the NBA and other sports leagues through various media outlets over the years like Sir Charles In Charge, G-Men HQ, and TAP into South Plainfield. Before he became an NBA News Writer, Wolpin attended Montclair State University where he graduated in 2021. He studied Sports Media and Writing while in school.
All posts by Zach WolpinUpdated10 Mar 2023
Rick Pitino started his coaching career in the 1975-76 season for the University of Hawaii. He’s a well decorated NCAA and NBA coach who’s been in the business for over 40 years. As a coach he’s won two national championship’s, one with Kentucky in 1996 and one with Louisville in 2013. Pitino is also the only coach in college basketball history to lead three different schools to the Final Four. Today, he’s the head coach at Iona College in New York.
Contract, Salary, and Buyout of Rick Pitino
The 70 year old coach is in the third season of a five-year deal with Iona College. His deal pays him in the high six-figure range and the two sides even had discussions about a possible lifetime contract. Those talks did not work out, but there is still a chance that he sign’s an extension down the line.
He’s quoted saying “I want to coach for a long time, as long as my health stays the same”, so he’s going to be coaching somewhere even if Iona doesn’t extend him. The long-time head coach has been rumored to want one more crack at a bigtime job and it just so happens that Georgetown and St. John’s have mutual interest in hiring him.
The specifics of Pitino’s deal says he has a contract buyout of $5 million and who knows if that will happen in the near future.
In the next few days, St. John's has a decision to make.
Assuming Mike Anderson is out, they won't just be hiring a basketball coach
They're making a statement about the university.
That they matter.
And because of it, they need to hire Rick Pitino
From @AaronTorresPod pic.twitter.com/8R2aK7hKeE
— Aaron Torres (@Aaron_Torres) March 10, 2023
Rick Pitino Net Worth
His contract with Louisville was terminated and he missed out on an extra $55 million, but is still one of the highest-paid coaches with a new worth of $45 million. Pitino’s average annual salary with Louisville was around $7.7 million. He coached there from 2001-2017.
The long-time coach opted out of a playing career in the NBA and decided to be a head coach instead. He’s made several stops in college and has coached in the NBA as well. Pitino is a two-time national champion, three-time SEC COY, and a two-time MAAC COY.
In college he’s coached at Hawaii, Boston University Providence, Kentucky, Louisville, and Iona. In the NBA he coached for his hometown New York Knicks and also the Boston Celtics from 1997-2001.
