Famous Basketball Coach Combats Extortion By Admitting to Extramarital Sex

By Germain Lussier on August 12th, 2009

Rick Pitino, the current head basketball coach at the University of Louisville, chose to admit to police that he had consensual sex outside of his marriage, got the girl pregnant and then paid for an abortion.

The admission was made because the woman in question, Karen Cunagin Sypher, has been trying to blackmail Pitino for money and goods. She was finally charged with extortion in April and Pitino had to admit the truth as part of the case.

According to police records found by the Louisville Courier-Journal, Pitino had sex with the Sypher in a Louisville restaurant in 2003 and later met with her to discuss the fact that she got pregnant. He paid her $3,000 for the operation. Later she came out with rape allegations and Pitino denied it.

Sypher, who later married one of Pitino’s employee’s, Louisville strength coach Tim Sypher, would send demands to the head coach through her husband. It began with college tuition for her kids, two cars, money to pay off her house and $3,000 per month, according to ESPN. Later, the demand increased to an even $10 million.

Pitino is one of the most decorated coaches in college basketball history at both Louisville and the University of Kentucky. He was a pretty solid NBA one as well, coaching both the Celtics and the Knicks.

And despite his obvious bad choices in the past, the fact is Pitino has done nothing illegal and his lawyer told ESPN that he won’t be taking a leave of absence from coaching.

“I can’t see any reason why the coach would take a leave of absence for being victimized by a woman like this,” Steve Pence said. “He doesn’t deserve to be punished for something he hasn’t done. I can see no reason why he would take a leave of absence when he was being extorted. He has done nothing illegal.”