catmandoo
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posted 05-19-2020 04:14 PM
John Wall is a five-time All-Star, but prior to his NBA success the electric point guard out of Raleigh, N.C., helped revitalize Kentucky’s basketball program during his lone season on campus. For that, he’s arguably the most important player of the John Calipari era. Before the Brow, Wall made Kentucky cool again.
But Wall told 247Sports in the latest edition of the ‘Social Distance’ interview series that the one season in Lexington nearly didn’t happen.
The No. 2 overall player and No. 1-ranked point guard in 2010, Wall had been intrigued by Calipari, even telling his high school friends that he wanted to play for the then-Memphis coach before they even connected for a recruiting call. But as Calipari was transitioning from Memphis to Kentucky in the offseason of 2009, the now 10-year Kentucky coach was navigating his recruiting class, and which prospects to bring with him to Lexington.
“He called me and told me he was about to change and I was like, ‘That’s fine, I like Kentucky anyway, I loved everything about their fanbase when I took a visit there,’” Wall said. “I took a visit there when Billy Gillispie was there, I loved everything about it. I just didn’t want to play with coach Gillispie so I’m like, ‘I’m going to go play at Memphis where Cal is.’ And he called me and I was like, ‘perfect, I don’t even have to take a visit, I already know the atmosphere, I already know how it goes.’”
Shortly after that call Wall and his future teammate DeMarcus Cousins were selected to the Nike Hoop Summit and were teammates at the event with Xavier Henry, who had been committed to Calipari at Memphis.
“I was playing with Xavier [Henry] and Xavier was a talented player but he was just shooting the ball so much, so mad he wasn’t getting the ball, I called Cal up and was like, ‘‘Cal when you switch to Kentucky, if he’s coming, I promise I won’t go,’” Wall explained. “I told him that straight up. I told him I can’t go because I was like me, DeMarcus, E-Bled [Eric Bledsoe] and all of these guys are about to sacrifice and he has to sacrifice, we’re not going to get a lot of shots. We all are used to averaging over 25 or more on our team and we’re not about to be like that and I don’t think he could buy into that.”
Henry, the No. 6 prospect in the 2009 recruiting class, would ultimately end up at Kansas, which paved the way for Wall to play for Calipari at Kentucky, rather than Frank Haith at Miami (the Hurricanes were very much in the picture for Wall).
Henry, the No. 6 prospect in the 2009 recruiting class, would ultimately end up at Kansas, which paved the way for Wall to play for Calipari at Kentucky, rather than Frank Haith at Miami (the Hurricanes were very much in the picture for Wall).
“I think [Xavier Henry's] brother was trying to go to school too and I think Cal ended up not bringing him and I was like, ‘OK, I’m going to Kentucky,’” Wall said. “I think if Xavier would have went then I would’ve ended up going to Miami.”
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