LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- He's part basketball coach, part story-teller, preacher, a guy who is trying to rally his team and his community. New U of L coach Kenny Payne accepted an offer to speak to a group at St. Stephen Baptist Church Saturday morning. 

"I get a lot of requests to do them but this is my first one," said Payne of the talk to a group at the church. "I thought it was important to do this one because St. Stephen is a place where it's a staple in the west end and I want to be a part of it."

He was introduced as the greatest basketball coach in the world and Payne said one of the biggest surprises in the time he's been the Louisville head coach has been just how big a deal people have made him out to be.

But he is a big deal around here. He has said all along that coming to Louisville is about more than just basketball. He told his listeners about this exchange with former UK Wildcat and current New York Knick Julius Randle as he was deciding to accept the U of L job.

"He says 'Unc, I'm proud of you, go change Louisville,'" said Payne about a conversation that happened toward the end of a game last season. "I said 'Julius, I keep telling you this. There are certain people in life, you make other people's lives better. But while you're making their life better, your life is in constant turmoil. That's me. Everywhere I turn, there's a roadblock, there's a struggle, there's adversity. But every person I touch, I try to help them succeed.'"   

"So he looked at me and he said, 'You don't understand Unc. God got you.'"

Payne has been talking with companies about helping people in the west end. 

On the court he has had to work with his players as much on the mental as the physical based on what he learned in his earliest meetings with the players from last season.  

"They said 'coach, it was bad,'" said Payne. "'Coach, it was disorganized. Coach, it was heartbreaking.'"

Payne said he's trying to build a culture of character and work ethic and discipline. He said he hopes he's got the guys in place to do what he wants to do this year, but says time will tell. He doesn't want to talk about wins and losses because he just doesn't know what to expect there.

The one thing that won't change is who is he now that he's a head coach.

"'Kenny Payne, you're the guy that got up and one o'clock, two o'clock in the morning to go train kids. You can't do that anymore,'" said Payne of things friends in the business have told him. "Oh yea, I'm doin' it. I'm doin' it. I'm not letting the job, the title take me away from what made me successful."

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