Rick Pitino calls out ‘over the top’ parents of St. John’s players

Rick Pitino and The Fresh Prince might be on the same page: “Parents just don’t understand.” 

The St. John’s basketball coach appeared on WFAN’s “Boomer and Gio” Thursday morning and expressed the belief that parents were putting too much pressure on players over individual stats. 

The concern for Pitino over that trend is that it could take away players’ attention from winning. 

Rick Pitino spoke about St. John’s parents on WFAN. Charles Wenzelberg/New York Post

“For years, coaches had been making millions and players had gotten nothing. Now, they’re being paid a great deal of money,” Pitino said. “What I will say what I like about it, I’d say my players give about 80 percent of the NIL to their parents to help them out and their families. That’s a great thing.”

In that same breath, Pitino mentioned the pressure he’s noticed parents starting to put on their players. 

“The parents are great parents. They’re very interested, they’re just a little over the top,” Pitino continued. “One of my players on the team hasn’t been rebounding well, and his parents said ‘You gotta get your numbers [up]. You gotta get those rebounds up.’ These kids have enough pressure with social media. They don’t need that. It is a little over the top. They are wonderful parents, they’re loving parents, they’re great, but they’re just a little too involved. I wish they would just be less involved in their lives in terms of when it comes to performance. Leave that up to the coaches.”

It was the second time in less than 24 hours that Pitino made mention of the pressure from parents, which he talked about following the Red Storm’s win over Wagner on Wednesday. 

St John’s Red Storm men’s basketball Head coach Rick Pitino answered reporter questions during Big East Media day 2024 Wednesday, October 23, 2024 at Madison Square Garden. Robert Sabo for NY Post

The legendary college coach brought it up after talking about struggling center Zuby Ejiofor.

However, when asked if he was talking about a specific player’s parent with the comment, Pitino told reporters that he wasn’t.

“I wish they would just take a little bit of a backseat,” He added on Thursday. “Just be loving parents as they are and put a little less stress on these guys.”