Some league sources have suggested never counting Calipari when Leon Rose, the new Knicks’ president, and William Wesley, the team’s unofficial advisor, are involved.
Last February, the Kentucky coach spoke highly of Rose but said he would not be interested in leaving Kentucky to work for him. Calipari signed a 10-year lifetime contract with Kentucky last June.
Former Knicks coach Larry Brown, who bounced back and forth from the NBA in college during a career in the Hall of Fame, is Calipari’s longtime mentor and talks to Calipari a few times a week.
Brown doubts that 61-year-old Calipari threw his hat into the ring at the last minute and overturned the search for the Knicks coach, in which Tom Thibodeau is the heavy favorite.
Brown said Calipari used to ask him if he should go back to the NBA for another crack, but those questions don’t come anymore. Calipari has been linked several times to the Knicks.
“I think he’s so happy where he is,” Brown told The Post from his East Hampton home. “He has done a great job and [is] so loved there and is helping the children. Those things mean something to him. I know he was asked before training the NBA several times. He hasn’t thought about it because of how comfortable he is.
“He has a chance to win the national championship every year because of the type of players he is allowed to recruit. I can’t imagine that she leaves. I can’t really. You read his name because of his relationship with Leon and the relationship with Wes, but we never talked about once he went to the Knicks. But I know how competitive he is. He didn’t like failing in New Jersey. “