Rick Pitino expresses regret about joining Celtics from Wildcats: 'I'd probably never leave Kentucky'

If Rick Pitino had one do-over for his basketball coaching career, he knows what he would do differently.

Joining the podcast Pardon My Take, the former Kentucky and Louisville men's basketball coach — now the coach at St. John’s — said he would like a second chance at one aspect of his career.

After leading Kentucky to a national title in 1996, Pitino said he would like a do-over on his decision to leave the Wildcats to pursue a coaching opportunity in the NBA with the Boston Celtics following a runner-up finish to Arizona in 1997.

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Rick Pitino with Celtics

The 72-year-old coach had a 219-50 (84%) record with Kentucky, including the NCAA Championship and three Final Four appearances. But the move to the league changed the course of his career, as he went 192-220 with two playoff appearances with the Celtics but was fired during the 2000-01 season.

"If I had to do it all over again, I’d probably never leave Kentucky," Pitino said on the podcast. "Dick Vitale, every time I speak to him, ‘If you would have stayed at Kentucky, you’d have more wins than any coach. And you think back on that.

“But I learned a lot. To coach the Boston Celtics, even if you didn’t do a great job, it’s just too much. You got Red Auerbach, you got Bill Russell ... and so many greats. It was worth the experience. But if I had to do it all over again, I had a choice, I probably would have stayed in Kentucky.”

Rick Pitino Louisville coaching stint

Louisville hired Pitino to replace Hall of Fame coach Denny Crum after Pitino was fired by the Celtics. Pitino led the Cardinals to a national championship in 2013-14 and posted a 293-140 record.

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However, Pitino ran into problems at Louisville and was eventually let go from the school due to multiple scandals.

The school imposed a self-ban postseason for the 2015-16 season amid an NCAA investigation into an escort sex scandal involving recruits between 2010 and 2014. Pitino was suspended for the first five games of the 2017-18 season after the NCAA charged him with "failure to monitor his basketball program."

Louisville became the first men's basketball program to have its national championship vacated as a result.

On September 26, 2017, federal prosecutors announced that the school was under investigation for an alleged "pay for play" for recruits.

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Pitino coached Panathinaikos − in Greece - from 2018-20 before returning to coach Iona for two seasons, going 64-22 and helping the Gaels make two NCAA Tournament appearances.

He has posted a 20-12 record in his first season with St. John's, with the team sitting on the NCAA Tournament bubble ahead of conference championship tournaments.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Rick Pitino: Former Kentucky basketball coach says he would change leaving Wildcats