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Report: LA Lakers to reach out to John Calipari, Kevin Ollie

Kevin Ollie, John Calipari

AP Photo

David J. Phillip

The Los Angeles Lakers will reach out to the two head coaches that battled it out on April 8th for the national title, according to a report from ESPN.com.

The Lakers will reach out to Kentucky head coach John Calipari and UConn head coach Kevin Ollie to gauge their interest in the job opening, the report says.

Calipari has long been part of the rumor mill when it comes to coaching in the NBA. His name has been tossed around as a potential head coach for the Knicks in recent offseasons, and he has coached in the NBA in the past, leading the Nets back in the late-90s, when they were still in New Jersey.

Calipari isn’t an ideal candidate to coach in the NBA, however. He’s better-suited to the college game. What he does best is recruit. He accumulates talent and sells them on buying into a system before jettisoning them to the NBA Draft. He’s not a pure x’s-and-o’s coach, and that’s what you need to be to be successful in the NBA.

Ollie is a more intriguing candidate. He spent 13 seasons in the NBA, and while he went to UConn, he’s a native of Southern California. He also has a close relationship to Kevin Durant, who will become a free agent in 2016, and you can bet that the Lakers are already picturing what it would look like to have Durant on the same team as Kevin Love.

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