As Billy Gillispie's days in the UK job waned, he contended that he wasn't hired to be a celebrity -- he was hired to coach basketball games. How's this for celebrity?

Yes, that is Billy G getting chased -- first in a walk, and then in a brisk jog -- by Kentucky TV reporters. It is hilarious.

There are so many good things here, it's hard to decide which is my favorite. Is it Gillispie pretending to be on the phone, even though he never says a word the entire time? Is it the reporter constantly asking questions he knows Gillispie isn't going to answer? Or is Gillispie desperately breaking out into a run, only to have Reporter Man tell him "You're not going to run away from me, are you? I can do this all day!"

Try as I might, I can't decide. It's pretty much just all awesome.

UPDATE: The reporter on camera is Louisville station WHAS 11's Mark Hebert. In case you were wondering why Hebert saw fit to chase Gillispie down the hallowed halls of Kentucky's practice facility, here's his explanation:

2) For those of you who think my decision to chase Billy Gillispie after his firing was poor judgment, you're probably right. My rationale at the time was that Gillispie walked right by the media, claiming to be on his cell phone. I was going to keep following him until he got off the phone. He never uttered a single word on the phone while I was behind him.

Incredible intuition, Mark. Of course Gillispie wasn't actually on the phone. You can see as much on the grainy Internet video above. I'm not sure what the strategy was here, but I wish the secretary at the end of the video would have let them go. How long would Gillispie have lasted? Oh, what could have been. 

(Thanks to Alex for the tip.)

Related: SEC Basketball