You’ll remember a couple years ago when Tom Izzo turned down the Cleveland Cavaliers? Well, another Central division team in the NBA is making a push for Izzo, and this one’s much closer to home. Izzo has had plenty of offers to leap to the NBA; but he’s always turned them down. Will this time be like all the other failed attempts by NBA front offices?
Or is Tom Izzo actually ready to leave East Lansing this time and embrace a new challenge?
USA Today seeems to think this could happen. As does The Sporting News his ESPN Analyst and “Michigan Man” Jalen Rose, who spoke about the Tom Izzo to Detroit prospects on his Grantland podcast. One person within the Pistons’ ownership will make an offseason push to land Tom Izzo as the next coach, according to Amick.
As for Jalen, he thinks Tom Izzo is looking towards a potential NBA future. Here’s what he said on conference call today with the media.
Q. Jalen, you mentioned in your podcast that Tom Izzo could potentially be going to the Pistons. Now there are reports out that one of the Pistons owners could be making a push for Tom Izzo. What initially gave you that inkling that he could be going to the NBA?
ROSE: Just being in the know, being in the loop, and really following both sports intimately. And watching how I see he has recruited recently. If you notice, most of the top schools, Kansas come to mind, Kentucky, and now even Duke, they’re doing more recruiting than what we consider the one-and-done type prospects.
You notice that Tom Izzo hasn’t gone heavily after those prospects. It seemed like to me he was gearing up for one last run. So Payne who is a senior, Appling, also a senior, Harris who is probably going to be a lottery pick — those three guys are leaving. Based on what I see recruiting-wise, that almost leaves the cupboard bare.
It would make sense, because the owner of the Pistons went to Michigan State. Tom has flirted with the NBA in particular with the Cleveland Cavaliers in the past. Those owners, the Gores, as well as Dan Gilbert, both have Michigan ties as well as Tom. So it would almost make sense for everybody involved to engage.
So I can’t tell you who actually told me, but I knew it was going to come to fruition. It’s a realistic chance that it may happen.
Paul M. Banks owns The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. An MBA and Fulbright scholar, he’s also a frequent commentator on national talk radio. The former NBC Chicago and Washington Times contributor has also been featured on the History Channel. President Obama follows him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)