Found this online..
Found this online..
Nolan Richardson is gone after some severe twitching. The University of Arkansas agreed to pay him $3 million not to coach, a decision made shortly after Richardson went off on another of the anger tangents for which he is famous/infamous.
"He usually blows up two, three times a year, and usually before a big game," says Wally Hall, sports columnist at Little Rock's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Usually, only the locals hear the explosion. But this temper tantrum was different.
"It came when there was no big national sports event going on, no Super Bowl, no spring training," Hall says. "So when he blew this time, it made national television. On top of that, he just made the whole state look terrible."
First, the man whose team won the national championship in 1994 and was runner-up in '95 dared the university to get in his face. He said, in essence, if you want to take your job and shove it, go right ahead. And, by the way, that'll cost you a few million bucks.
Richardson then used his weekly news conference to spray vitriol on people who hired him 17 years ago, built him a 20,000-seat palace and helped him become successful, rich and famous. Nor did he stop there. He insulted fans, media and coaches at the school. The harangue spared no one--except Nolan Richardson. Nolan Richardson is "the greatest thing going at the University of Arkansas," Nolan Richardson said.
Maybe when you're 60 years old; when your team is 13-13; when you'll miss the NCAA Tournament for only the second time in 15 seasons; and when your recruiting hasn't been what it used to be, maybe you get so twitchy you're talking to that invisible bird 23 hours a day. So you want out, but you want to walk with $6 million instead of $3 million. You may figure you'll raise the ante by raising a stink.
Whatever, Richardson's televised jeremiad came to this: I'm black, you're white, you're persecuting me, and I don't have to take it.
"My great-great-grandfather came over on the ship," he said at that news conference. "Not Nolan Richardson. I did not come over on that ship. So I expected to be treated a little bit different. Because I know for a fact that I do not play on the same level as the other coaches around this school play on. I know that. You know it. And people of my color know that. And that angers me."
Speaking of color, the coach told reporters, "When I look at all of you people in this room, I see no one look like me, talk like me or act like me. Now why don't you recruit? Why don't the editors recruit like I'm recruiting?"
:thefinger :nooo: :bsflag
