Louisville basketball always has been a connective fiber, until it hasn’t been.
After an exceptionally difficult few years, a city and a community and a university crave hope. If his team exceeds expectations, he has to credit his players and staff and leave none of it for Kenny Payne. If his team is bad, he has to take the heat with humility and grace. A true leader, Payne tells the group, puts others before themself. So after an introduction, Louisville’s coach talks about his team and his players, about how much he values the care U of L Health provides for the less fortunate in the community and, as a corollary, about his definition of leadership. Asked if he had even the vaguest of scripts, Payne points a long index finger to his chest. He didn’t have any prepared remarks, because Payne, 55, does not prepare remarks. with yet another someone wanting more of his time.īefore this, it was a speech downtown for 200 doctors and assorted staffers at U of L Health. And now he has these stories to tell, which is kind of why he’s here, preparing for his first season as Louisville’s new men’s basketball coach, walking through the gym doors at 7:31 p.m. He didn’t run home after losing the wallet.
He’s nevertheless smiling in the front row of Louisville’s film room, more than two decades later, fresh off another community appearance on a Thursday night in early October. “Someone probably got me,” he says, shaking his head, as if he still can’t believe he was that kid, to this day. How in the world does that happen? he thought.
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