Kadary Richmond’s return to Seton Hall as a member of the St. John’s basketball team brought a lot of emotions to the forefront for most people inside the Prudential Center on Saturday night.
Pirate fans vociferously booed Richmond every time he touched the ball as students held up signs with dollar bills and snakes towards him. St. John’s fans chanted his name in the final minutes of a blowout victory as Richmond remained stone faced for most of the game.
Rick Pitino, on the other hand, went a different route in describing the scene inside the arena following the 79-51 beatdown by the Johnnies (16-3, 7-1 Big East)
“Nothing really bothers Kadary,” he said. “Every one of those students and everybody in the building would have done the same thing he did.”
“Believe me, if the money was the same, he would be playing for Shaheen [Holloway]. If the money was close, he’d be playing for Shaheen.”
Richmond landed a near 7-figure NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) package from St. John’s upon his commitment in the spring as the Red Storm have one of the largest NIL funds in the Big East.
“He’s a free agent just like all free agents,” Pitino continued.
“He loves Seton Hall, he loves Shaheen, playing for Shaheen, loved his teammates here, but it’s not a level playing field. I’m hoping that revenue comes into Seton Hall, and everybody basically gets the same [NIL funds] and then you’ll see Seton Hall just as good as any team in the league,” Pitino added.
The Pirates (6-12, 1-6 Big East) are in the bottom third in the conference in NIL and it was most notable this offseason when trying to retain its roster and add players in the transfer portal.
“Right now, they don’t have the revenue that most of the other teams have, probably it’s the lowest in the league.”
Seton Hall head coach Shaheen Holloway was not nearly as descriptive on the topic of NIL after Pitino’s remarks.
“I’m just playing the hand I was dealt,” he said. “I can’t get into that.”
“What we have is what we have…I deal with it and try to make the best of it.”
In addition to Richmond’s departure to St. John’s, Seton Hall also saw standout forward Dre Davis leave for Ole Miss this spring.
“Who knows?” Holloway questioned about Pitino’s comments on Richmond potentially still being a Pirate if they had enough funds to retain him. “Certain people can talk about money and talk about things and certain people can’t.”
“He can make those type of statements. If I make statements like that and everybody will say, ‘Who is he to make those statements?’, so I just stay away from that type of stuff.”
Kadary Richmond went for 12 points, five rebounds, six assists, and two steals in St. John’s victory and silenced a crowd very quickly that was getting on him as soon as the doors opened.
“He might something I don’t know,” Holloway continued about Pitino. “Maybe Kadary told him that. I don’t know.”
The two teams will meet again during the regular season on Saturday, March 1 (2:15 p.m. ET, CBS) inside Carnesecca Arena.