MEMPHIS, Tenn. – John Calipari walked into the grand lobby here at FedExForum on Tuesday for a press conference to announce the Hoops For St. Jude Tip-off Classic – an exhibition scheduled for next month between the team he now coaches (Arkansas) and the team he used to coach (Memphis) with proceeds benefitting the internationally acclaimed downtown hospital located minutes away.

But it was so much more than just a press conference.

For anybody who understands the history of Calipari in Memphis, or the relationship between Calipari and Memphis since he left for Kentucky in March 2009, it was a sweet scene – one that seemed to represent the official beginning of the end of an awkward existence between two things that seemed like a perfect match for nine remarkable years in the early 2000s, before little more than a logical career-choice took him from “In Cal We Trust” to “Public Enemy No. 1” basically overnight in the 901.

Yes, Coach Cal returned to Memphis on Tuesday. He was greeted warmly and surrounded by old friends.

There was Van Weinberg, the owner of James Davis, a local clothing store where Calipari has continuously shopped even after leaving town. A few feet away was Streets Ministries founder Ken Bennett, a man who never stopped serving as a resource for Calipari even after the run at Memphis ended. Everywhere you looked, there was another familiar face of another prominent Memphian – plus former Tigers who played for Calipari like Shawne Williams, Jeremy Hunt, Billy Richmond, and Shawn Taggert.

“It feels like Memphis circa 2008,” noted Kyle Veazey, chief of staff at ALSAC, the fundraising and awareness organization for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

In many ways, it really did.

“The city of Memphis is a special place,” said Calipari, who remains responsible for some of the most special sports memories this city has ever experienced. In a span of nine seasons, he took a program that had struggled after the termination of local icon Larry Finch three years earlier and produced the following:

• Five conference championships.
• Four conference tournament championships.
• Four Sweet 16 appearances.
• Three Elite Eight appearances.
• One Final Four appearance.

Back then, around these parts, no human was bigger. This was John Calipari’s city. But roughly a year after bringing Memphis its first No. 1 ranking in the history of the Associated Press Top 25 poll, and getting the program closer to a national championship than it had ever been, Calipari went to one last Sweet 16 with the Tigers in 2009 and then understandably bounced to UK to replace Billy Gillispie.

Simply put, Memphis fans were just hurt when he departed. Nobody likes to be left by someone they love. Regardless, on this Tuesday at FedExForum, whatever hurt feelings remain certainly seemed outnumbered by smiles and laughs and hugs between friends.

John Calipari will indeed be honored by Memphis – specifically on Oct. 27 in an exhibition that will produce a result that won’t count. But just because it won’t count, doesn’t mean the night won’t matter. Because, absolutely, it will matter for how much money it raises for one of our nation’s most important hospitals that routinely creates miracles for families that need them. And, absolutely, it will matter in the sense that it should let an all-time great coach and the fans who once adored him collectively move on.

“Nine years,” Calipari told me after he had taken countless pictures Tuesday and shaken even more hands. “It wasn’t like it was a two-year flip and let’s go. It was nine years.”

Now, it seems appropriate and fitting.