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Once a year Howard Garfinkel likes to gather some of the best instructors he can for the Clinic To End All Clinics in New York. He’ll have his seventh clinic Sept. 28 and for the second time, Kentucky coach John Calipari will be there. So will college basketball analysts Seth Greenberg (ESPN), Pete Gillen (CBS) and Mike Fratello (NBA) at Fordham Prep.
Garfinkel started the legendary 5-Star Camp in 1966, a camp Calipari attended as a player and then worked as a coach. Louisville’s Rick Pitino worked there. So did Dick Vitale, Roy Williams, Hubie Brown, Bobby Knight, Tom Izzo, Billy Donovan, Larry Brown and many, many others. Players such as Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Chris Paul, Isiah Thomas, Moses Malone, Kevin Durant, Grant Hill and John Wall played there.
Garfinkel, 83, says he has “four superstars” coming to his clinic this year. He helps them pick their topics and Calipari will speak on coaching, teaching and organizing today’s player.
“I don’t think there’s anybody better to do that than him, either,” said Garfinkel. “I want to have something they are comfortable with, but also something different. This is easy for John.
“He has done this before. He was at my second clinic and did a great job just like I am sure he will this year. We go way back together. I started my camp in 1966 and he was a camper for three years. He won the best playmaker award as a camper. He was a decent high school player and okay as a college player.”
Garfinkel thought Calipari would be a “good coach,” but never envisioned him become the master recruiter that he has.
“He has always been very gracious to me and always been a great competitor,” Garfinkel said. “He was a super coach in our camp. The first year he coached in what we called the developmental league, an invited league for the best rising sophomores in the country. He won the league and he refused to let me move him up to coach all the great superstars in future years. He just wanted to coach the developmental league and teach kids.
“I thought he would be a good recruiter due to his diligence and personality, but not to the extent he has done it. It has been a shock. It’s really a huge surprise anybody could do what he has done, and do it legitimately and without any scandal. It’s been an amazing recruiting job.”
That includes bringing six McDonald’s All-Americans to Kentucky this year, the most any school has ever signed in one season. But Garfinkel doesn’t believe this team can be as good as UK’s 2012 national championship team led by Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.
“That team may not be surpassed,” Garfinkel said. “I said then, age for age, that was the greatest team in college basketball history. They started three freshmen, two sophomores. I don’t want to put the whammy on John and say this team can be better. When they roll the balls out, we’ll see. But that team two years ago was really special.”
Garfinkel jokes that he calls “Calipari a lot, he calls me back a little bit” before adding that when it is “urgent” he can always reach the Kentucky coach.
“Did you know who his best friends are today? His high school camp and college buddies. He has not changed,” Garfinkel said. “Those are still his best friends. He has stayed the same guy. It is a fact. No one writes about that. It’s amazing he hasn’t changed.”
Garfinkel hopes to have at least 80 coaches — he had 68 in 2012 and 110 in 2011 — for his clinic. If he doesn’t get 80, then this might be his last one.
“Clinics are getting old-fashioned or something,” he said. “This year might be my last. I wanted to do eight because eight is my lucky number. Hopefully having Calipari here helps attendance.”
He will see Kentucky play Providence in Brooklyn. He also plans to be in Chicago for the UK-Michigan State and Duke-Kansas games. He also annually makes a trip to Kentucky to see UK and Louisville — he’s remained friends with Pitino, too — play a game.
“I try to see Calipari as often as I can without killing myself because even after all these years, it’s still fun to spend time with him and he treats me great,” Garfinkel said.
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