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Question: Why is it you have the ability to communicate with athletes today?
Calipari: Well, tell them the truth. Not embellishing. I mean, we undersell, overdeliver. I'm not going to BS you. This is how it is. If you don't want this then you don't come here. I'm not the only coach that can help you prepare for your dreams. This is what we do and how we do it. If you want this, it is a great place to go. If you don't want it, you can go somewhere else.
Everybody says, Coach, we want you to keep it real, keep it real. Unless you're keeping it real with them, then they're not real happy. So the other one is I need four years to create a relationship. Well, my wife and I we've been 26 years. I think we were four months together and I knew. I don't need four years with these guys. We create a relationship in a year or two. I tell you after that, they start disliking you, I think.
So we treat them right. It's about them, there is no question. Last year, how did you get guys to play this way? They trusted that it was about them. So they shared their sacrifice, they shared sacrifice. From Anthony Davis who shot 22 points the other day and looked in the camera, ‘Coach Cal didn't let me do this.’ But he was a shot taker, or Michael Kidd‑Gilchrist or Darius Miller coming off the bench who was undraftable as a junior, and is draftable coming off the bench as a senior. They trust that we're going to do what you want because we know you care about us. This is not about you, Grand Poobah. It's not about. We don't care about winning. You care about us. I've only known that way.
I've coached that way and made it about kids, and it doesn't mean I don't scream and yell. If somebody says you can't really get on kids anymore. Yeah, you can, if they know you care about them. They know it's about them, then whatever you tell them to do, they'll do. This group is going to do whatever I ask them to do. Whatever I ask them to do, they'll do. I have to hope I'm asking them to do the right things. They're going to do what we ask, so hopefully it's the right stuff.
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