Bill Self Turned Down $10 Million From Cleveland Cavaliers

The Cleveland Cavaliers had very busy summer. Between owing the first overall pick, the signing of LeBron James, and the trade for Kevin Love there is now a report from ESPN’s Brian Windhorst that the Cavs were in pursuit of Kansas Jayhawks head coach, Bill Self.

The Cavs needed to make a splash for their head coaching job and they looked to some of the best names at the college ranks including Florida’s Billy Donovan, Kentucky’s John Calipari, Michigan State’s Tom Izzo and Bill Self.

Self spoke about the Cavs pursuit of him, though he down played it quite a bit.

"We visited about the job. At no point in time was there any serious discussion about anything. We visited in general but no serious discussions about it or anything like that."

That was back in the summer, when Calipari’s name to the Cavs was drawing the most attention. Self’s name was also being included in the discussion’s but like we just said, he down played it.

Well, according to Brian Windhorst, that wasn’t the case at all. When speaking on ESPN he had this to say:

"They offered this job to Bill Self of Kansas. They offered this job to John Calipari at Kentucky and a huge contract, reportedly over $10 million a year. They both said no."

Self opted to stay with Kansas, where he gets payed just fine but to turn down the opportunity to coach LeBron James has got to be kicking at him just a little bit. However, the success rate of college-to-pro coaches isn’t that great and now that LeBron James, Kevin Love, and Kyrie Irving are all paired up, the expectations are beyond high.