The deal was nearly sealed and signed on the dotted line. Rick Barnes, on the advice of his longtime financial advisor, was set to become the next head coach at UCLA. The lure of bringing a storied program back to relevance to cap off his career was enticing.
Barnes then prayed on the decision long and hard, asking that he be guided in the right direction. That’s when the negotiations stalled and the veteran coach saw the writing on the wall.
“I believe God made it very clear through many people that I’m supposed to be at Tennessee,” Barnes said. “And it really goes above and beyond the basketball program.”
While Barnes and Tennessee basketball experienced unprecedented success on the court this season, it’s the relationships he and his wife have established in the community that weighed on his mind so much.
Turns out that Knoxville doesn’t make it any easier on the commercial side of the bargain, either.
Countless restaurants offered Barnes free food ‘for life.’ The Tennessee Smokies and Knoxville Ice Bears both brought forth season tickets. While oblivious to the countless propositions at the time, Barnes’ love for East Tennessee goes beyond any signature eatery.
“I’m in love with this community and I’m in love with this state,” Barnes said. “I think we have a lot of great things going on this town and I want to continue to make Knoxville one of the greatest places to live.”
It was the offer that Tennessee athletic director Phillip Fulmer and interim president Randy Boyd put together that was the most enticing, however.
A former coach himself, with a plethora of experience in college athletics, Fulmer’s mindset from the beginning was to out-bargain UCLA. If the Bruins were going to steal Barnes from the Vols, it would not be easy.
“We weren’t going to let anybody come in here and buy our coach without putting up a great fight,” Fulmer said. “We weren’t just going to let him go away.”
A historian of the game, Barnes grew up idolizing the late John Wooden, who coached the Bruins to 10 national championships and 12 Final Four appearances before his retirement in 1975.
He also gained a lifelong fan in Barnes who, despite growing up thousands of miles away from UCLA’s campus, greatly admired the program growing up.
When Barnes was in eighth grade, his family spent $56 to send him to the Campbell College Basketball Camp, the oldest in the country. His reasoning behind it? Wooden was going to be there, along with NBA legend Pete Maravich.
The lure that comes with coaching where one of your role models once did was intriguing, and it was the sole reason Barnes began listening.
“It was the fact that I’ve got so much respect for UCLA basketball and what it meant to me growing up” Barnes said. “That was really the sole reason that it all got started.”
Was there a chance that Barnes was ready to head west? Absolutely. Had the buyout negotiations not flamed out, Barnes confirmed that he would have been addressing the media in Southern California instead.
“I think I would have been the coach at UCLA,” Barnes said.
The process wasn’t always a pleasant experience, either. Barnes lost over five pounds during that time as the decision continued to weigh on him.
“I didn’t come out of my house for two days…you don’t feel like eating,” Barnes said. “I have put it (five pounds) back on, though.”
While a deal with UCLA was not far off, the two sides were unable to reach an agreement as deliberations furthered.
Despite a lucrative counteroffer from Tennessee’s administration, the Hickory, N.C., native constantly kept an open mind in terms of what each decision would mean for him and his career.
Ultimately, Barnes’ decision rested on faith and financial terms, and while he is at peace with his decision, reality for Tennessee basketball fans could very well have changed within just a days’ time.
“It has to make sense from a financial standpoint,” Barnes said. “We just couldn’t work it out with the buyout in terms of what was going to be that part of it.”
