Right in the middle of the NBA Playoffs, more than two weeks after his 21st season at Villanova ended, and several years before most thought it would happen, Naismith Memorial Hall of Famer and two-time national champion coachย Jay Wright announced his retirement Wednesday night.
To call it shocking is an understatement.
This is a man who is only 60 years old in a sport where coaches often work into their 70s. A man who just coached in his fourth Final Four earlier this month. A man who had a top-20 team coming back.
So why retire now?
Wright offered no real explanation in his announcement on Twitter — but he did say he’s “excited to hand over the reigns to Villanova’s next coach.” Put another way, he’s excited to walk away — and these next words are mine, not his — from a profession that is more demanding and chaotic and exhausting than ever.
Again, Wright has not said any of that — publicly. But sources have indicated that he, like many of his colleagues, simply reached a point where the job wasn’t nearly as fun as it used to be because of all of the things coaches now have to deal with that didn’t use to exist. Name, image and likeness rights were long overdue. The one-time transfer waiver is fair. Alternative options for high school prospects are great. Social media is fun. But even the coaches who agree with each of those previous four sentences — and, trust me, not all of them do — acknowledge that the combination of those things has made their jobs complex and in many ways unappealing. Do you really believe it’s a coincidence that North Carolina’s Roy Williams, Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski and Villanova’s Jay Wright all retired within 13 months of each other — or that Maryland’s coach (Mark Turgeon) and Louisville’s coach (Chris Mack) just straight quit in the middle of the season?
I don’t.
Needless to say, these men were all paid incredibly well to do their jobs — but that’s…
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