FAYETTEVILLE — During Joe Kleine’s 15-year NBA career, the former University of Arkansas All-Southwest Conference center had a 28-game stint with the New Jersey Nets at the end of the 1996-97 season.
Kleine’s coach with the Nets?
John Calipari.
Kleine said he liked playing for Calipari and is looking forward to cheering for him as the Razorbacks’ new men’s basketball coach.
An announcement of Calipari’s official hiring at Arkansas is expected today. He posted a farewell video to the Kentucky program and its fans on Tuesday after being the Wildcats’ coach the last 15 seasons.
“We had an eclipse and a national championship game on Monday, and people were talking about Arkansas Razorback basketball because of Cal,” Kleine said. “I think hiring Cal puts us at the forefront of men’s basketball. That’s what he brings to the program.”
Kleine was in his 12th season as an NBA player when he went to New Jersey as part of a trade between the Nets and Los Angeles Lakers.
Calipari was in his first season at New Jersey after a successful run as a college coach at Massachusetts.
The Nets finished 26-56 in the 1996-97 season, but Kleine said Calipari did a good job with the team.
“I really liked Cal’s energy,” Kleine said. “He was a breath of fresh air.
“He wasn’t a typical NBA coach. He had a lot of energy and a lot of passion.
“I worried with the 82-game NBA schedule that he was going to die of a heart attack, because he was so passionate every game.
“But he’s a fighter, man. That’s what I liked about him. Every game he got after it like it was the playoffs.
With him, every game was a big game. He always brought it, regardless of the opponent.”
Calipari led the Nets to a 43-39 record and a playoff berth in his second season when they lost a first-round series to Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls.
When New Jersey started 3-17 in Calipari’s third season, he was fired.
“That was on the Nets,” Kleine said, referring to the franchise’s history of futility. “That wasn’t on Cal.”
Calipari recovered from his brief time in the NBA to win big again as a college coach at Memphis and Kentucky.
In 32 seasons, Calipari has an on-court record of 855-263 at Massachusetts, Memphis and Kentucky with six Final Four appearances highlighted by winning the 2012 national championship with the Wildcats.
“I think Cal’s hit out of the park since he got back in college coaching,” said Kleine, who lives in Little Rock and is co-owner of two Corky’s Ribs & BBQ restaurants. “He made Memphis nationally relevant. Then he went to Kentucky and won a national championship and has made them as relevant as any program in the country year in and year out.
“I think he’s like fine wine, he gets better with age.”
Calipari is 65, but Kleine doesn’t expect his age to be an issue. He has been around Calipari in recent years doing some Kentucky games as an analyst for the SEC Network.
“The guy I know is a great competitor,” Kleine said. “He’s going to come in here to win. He’s not going to come in here and put his feet up.
“As with all great coaches, he has an ego, which is what you want with a head coach.
“He wants to win, and he wants to be relevant, and he wants wherever he’s coaching to be relevant.
“He doesn’t like to lose. I think he’s going to have a chip on his shoulder and he’s going to want to stick it to whomever has doubted him. I like that, because that’s how I am.”
The doubts in Calipari at Kentucky increased because the Wildcats went 1-3 in NCAA Tournament appearances the last three years and didn’t play in the event in 2021 when they finished 9-16.
From 2010 through 2019, Calipari’s Wildcats were 31-9 in NCAA Tournament games.
“His struggles the last few years are un-Calipari-like,” Kleine said. “Things haven’t worked out for various reasons, and there have been bad losses in the NCAA Tournament, which are uncharacteristic.
“But that’s sports, that’s basketball. Those things happen and you’ve got to face them and try to fix them and get better.
“I’ve always seen Cal coming out and fighting and never shying away from his accountability.”
Two Arkansas coaches, Nolan Richardson and Eddie Sutton, were inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2014 and 2020, respectively, after they had retired.
Calipari was inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame in 2015.
From the 1976-77 through the 2000-01 seasons, Arkansas made the NCAA Tournament 22 of 25 years under Sutton and Richardson, highlighted by Richardson’s Razorbacks winning the 1994 national championship.
The two coaches combined for four Final Four appearances at Arkansas — three under Richardson and one under Sutton — and 10 Sweet 16 appearances.
After Richardson was fired late in the 2001-02 season, the Razorbacks endured a stretch of 17 seasons and six NCAA Tournament appearances without advancing past the second round.
Eric Musselman, who resigned last Thursday after five seasons as Arkansas’ coach to take the Southern Cal job, led the Razorbacks to NCAA Tournament Elite Eight appearances in 2021 and 2022 and the Sweet 16 in 2023 before this season’s team finished 16-17.
“I’m an Arkansas fan, but when we have the right guy in place, and when the fanbase is energized, there’s no place any better,” Kleine said. “We went through a period after we lost Nolan Richardson as our coach that we didn’t get it right for a lot of years.
“We couldn’t do anything consistently for a lot of years. I think Eric Musselman got the program woken up, and then he bolted.
“I think Cal is the guy to get us back on top again. I think people have stepped up [financially] to put us on the same tier with the resources that the Kentuckys, and the Dukes and the North Carolinas have.
“We’re going to have the same resources that the most prominent programs have now, and we have the coach who will do big things. I think we’re back in the game big-time.
“Cal makes us instantly relevant nationally. I think he’s going to do great here. I think he’s going to love it here.”
Kleine said he first became aware last Saturday night Calipari was a candidate for the Arkansas job when his son, Daniel, told him about it.
Kleine said his son heard it from a person whose information he trusted to be accurate.
“I dismissed it and told Daniel he was crazy,” Kleine said with a laugh. “But then it didn’t go away and you began to realize it really was going to happen.”
Kleine said he’s looking forward to attending the press conference at which Calipari is announced as the Arkansas coach.
“I can’t wait to watch him call the Hogs,” Kleine said. “I know I’m going to be there, and I’m going to have my camera ready.”