Tom Izzo and his wife, Lupe.
This is, to be sure, a football blog. I don’t know much about basketball. I’m not going to pretend that I do. And because of that, I tend to stay away from posting basketball stories on the site.
But this story transcends that. Tom Izzo has brought so much to Michigan State University. In many ways, he is perhaps the most recognizable public face of MSU. So it’s no surprise that the possibility of him leaving for the Cleveland Cavaliers coaching position strikes deep into the hearts of Spartan fans throughout the country and the world.
I don’t have a clue which way Izzo is going to fall on this one. He has indicated that he has a desire to, one day, coach at the highest level. Realistically, this is probably his last best opportunity to make that move. The Cavaliers finished with the NBA’s best regular season record and have one of the league’s most dynamic players. It’s a great opportunity for any coach, whether you were coming up from the college ranks or not.
Personally, I have a hard time seeing Tom Izzo leave a program that he has helped elevate to great success and that will be knocking on the door of a national championship to take the Cavs job without a very strong feeling that LeBron James will re-sign with the club after July 1st. But the Cavs front office is certainly not willing to wait that long, and have expressed interest in Byron Scott (frankly, I know next-to-nothing about Scott. I know that he has played in the NBA, and that apparently LeBron wants a coach who has NBA playing experience – and I have no idea how much, if any, weight the Cavs front office puts on this factor).
The rumored contract is 5 years, $3o million. That’s $6 million per, double what Izzo currently makes at MSU. But I don’t think it’s really about the money for Izzo. Sure, twice the green is twice as nice. But I think for Izzo, this is about his legacy, and his desire to win at every level, including the pros.
Now there are some that say Izzo’s legacy is at the college level – a place where he’s found success in the past, and would find success in the future. I won’t deny this point. But this isn’t a matter of how we as fans perceive Izzo’s legacy, it’s about how Izzo sees himself building what he wants his legacy to be. As a fan, who am I to say what that should be?
As I followed the story on Twitter today, I saw a lot of posts about how people were disappointed that Izzo was going to drag this out over the weekend. Stop. Think about this for a second. Izzo visited Cleveland less than 24 hours ago with his family. And the implications for his family if he takes this job are tremendous – they have to move, uproot themselves, change schools, and get acclimated to a whole new area and a whole new ballgame (figuratively, not literally). If you have a wife and kids (I don’t), how long would it take you to make that decision? More than 24 hours? Three days? I can hardly believe I could make a decision like that in the span of a weekend.
I have tremendous respect for Tom Izzo – I think we all do. And that’s why it’s so hard to envision the possibility of him leaving. But I can’t begin to explain how much I appreciate what he has done for MSU – the great memories, the excitement, the class that he has run his program with and by extension is attributed to MSU as a whole, the feeling I get when I talk about college basketball with people I work with or people I’ve been in graduate school classes with. He has given me tremendous pride in Michigan State University.
Soon, we’ll find out if Coach Izzo will be staying at MSU to likely finish out his legacy, or whether he will follow his longing to coach in the NBA by taking the coaching position with the Cavs. A decision, by some accounts, could come as soon as tomorrow.
No matter what happens, I’ll be okay with it. Tom Izzo has conducted himself with class throughout this entire process. He did his due diligence by visiting with the Cleveland organization – same as any of us would have done. He’s been forthright with his players, with the administration, with the media and even with us, the fans. So if Izzo says, I’ll be happy and excited for the future. And if he leaves, certainly I’ll be disappointed. But I’ll also wish Tom the best of luck, and I hope he wins an NBA title, and I know that he’ll always be an advocate and an ambassador for Michigan State University. Because if things were the other way around, Tom would wish the same for us.
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