Columnist Jeff German: ‘Pursuing Pitino’ is hot game

Saturday, Jan. 20, 2001 | 10:20 a.m.

Jeff German is the Sun's senior investigative reporter. He can be reached at (702) 259-4067 or by e-mail at german@lasvegassun.com

PARDON ME for participating in the latest high-stakes game in town -- "Pursuing Pitino."

I know UNLV President Carol Harter would prefer that I keep my mouth shut, but this game is too fun to play.

Talk of bringing the dynamic Rick Pitino to UNLV to head its troubled basketball program certainly has energized the community.

Pitino, the ex-Boston Celtics coach, has the national stature of UNLV football guru John Robinson necessary to bring instant credibility to the program and rid the university of the NCAA monkey on its back.

It has been reported that UNLV boosters Steve Wynn and Irwin Molasky had a lot to do with Pitino even considering the UNLV job. The two business stalwarts were spotted smiling and conducting a friendly chat on Gucci Row at a recent Rebel game. You know they weren't talking about the merits of buying gaming stocks on Wall Street.

If it is true that Wynn and Molasky, who are adept at the art of persuasion, have led the university's pursuit of Pitino behind the scenes, we can rest assured that they will get their man.

But in the meantime, we need to remember what happened the last time Wynn became actively involved in the hunt for a basketball coach.

He left us with the tab for Rollie Massimino.

Those were tough days for UNLV, which saw its most celebrated basketball coach of all time, Jerry Tarkanian, step down under pressure less than two years after taking the basketball team to the 1990 NCAA championship.

Tarkanian, who believed his ouster was orchestrated by the NCAA and then-UNLV President Bob Maxson, his two biggest enemies at the time, did not go easy. His departure split apart the community.

Wynn, who sided with Maxson in the rift, brought Massimino to town a couple of times on his corporate jet in early 1992 to wine and dine the former Villanova University coach at the Mirage. Wynn also shuttled Maxson and his athletic director, Jim Weaver, back and forth to Philadelphia to negotiate a deal with Massimino.

The charismatic Wynn got his man then. Massimino signed a five-year agreement with UNLV, giving him an annual salary package of $511,000. But what we didn't know at the time was that the university, with Wynn's help, also handed Massimino a supplemental contract worth an additional $375,000 a year over that same period. That contract, which was kept secret, even from the Board of Regents, was put together with private contributions from wealthy university donors, including Wynn.

I remember breaking the story of the secret deal in August 1994, about 18 months after Massimino had taken over the reins of the basketball program. Days after the disclosure, Massimino resigned, but not before accepting a $1.9 million buyout. UNLV was forced to keep Massimino on its payroll for the next five years, even though he no longer was coaching there, until all of the $1.9 million was paid.

Gov. Kenny Guinn remembers those days very well. He was serving as interim UNLV president at the time, having been brought in to clean up after Maxson, who also had left the university.

It was Guinn who found Massimino's supplemental contract on the books of the athletic department.

Today the governor offers some friendly advice to Harter and her athletic director, Charlie Cavagnaro.

"I think Rick Pitino would be great for UNLV," Guinn says. "But at the same time, any contractual agreements need to be made public. It should be done in the open so that everybody understands what the deal is."

Regent Steve Sisolak couldn't agree more.

Sisolak says Harter assured him that Pitino's deal would indeed be bared for all to see.

"I'm confident that President Harter has a handle on it," he says. "I trust that she's going to do the right thing."

That makes "Pursuing Pitino" a lot more fun.