25 Years Ago, John Chaney Threatened To Kill John Calipari
There have been plenty of discussions in recent years about “Oh man, wouldn’t it have been great if Twitter had been around during this event?” The Malice At The Palace is typically the go-to here, along with some other serious historical events, but 25 years ago in Amherst is a sneaky pick for what would have been a GREAT social media event. Two ranked college basketball squads playing a nationally televised conference game commentated by none other than Dickie V, UMass wins on a 15-foot floater in their final possession, just a great 56-55 tilt for a Sunday afternoon. And then, a short time after the game had finished, UTTER PANDEMONIUM.
According to a great oral history which ran in the Daily Collegian today, Chaney had recently been reprimanded by the A-10 for complaining about the officials during a game Temple recently played at West Virginia. When one of his assistants told him Calipari was bitching to the refs after UMass had just won at home? Well, that was enough to fill Chaney with a murderous rage.
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A coach walking in to another coach’s press conference and threatening his literal life is so goddamn funny. To then slowly lessen the threats to “I’m gonna kick your ass” to finally “One of my players is going to punch your players in the fucking mouth” is even funnier. Especially since, everyone in that room believed every word that Chaney was saying. Cal would have got his ass whooped real good had several other human beings not got in the way. And, to me, the best part of this all is that Chaney was suspended just one game. ONE! He threatened a man’s life! That’s such a win for Chaney it doesn’t even matter that he lost this game and then against at home to UMASS two weeks later. There are so many things that people get suspended multiple games for that aren’t as severe as threatening a man’s life in front of dozens of witnesses. To put it plainly, it truly was a simpler, better time to be alive.
