John Wall is credited with spearheading the one-and-done era, especially at Kentucky. Wall committed to Big Blue in 2009 as John Calipari’s top recruit in his first class as the Wildcats’ head coach.
Wall was the No. 2 overall player in the nation and top point guard. In his lone season at Kentucky, he became the 2010 SEC Player of the Year, guiding a star-studded Kentucky team to an SEC championship and a run to the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament. However, that run almost never happened.
Appearing on 247 Sports’ Social Distance interview series, Wall explained he wouldn’t have gone to Kentucky if Xavier Henry had committed to the program.
Wall says he wanted to go to Memphis where Calipari was then head coach. However, Calipari opted to leave Memphis to become the head coach at Kentucky. That jump prompted Wall to want to go to Kentucky with Calipari.
“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.’”
Calipari stacked his first recruiting class at Lexington with future NBA stars, DeMarcus Cousins, Eric Bledose, Wall and former first-round pick Daniel Orton. That class could have included Henry as well, but, Wall wasn’t too keen on playing with him.
Shortly after the call with Calipari, Wall and Cousins were teammates with Henry on the Nike Hoop Summit.
“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.”
During his tenure at Kentucky, Calipari has preached to his stacked recruiting classes they would have to sacrifice shots and style of play to fit their ultimate goal as a team. It’s worked both for Calipari and players with NBA aspirations.
Henry ultimately decided to go Kansas. Wall would go on to be the No. 1 overall pick by the Washington Wizards in the 2010 NBA Draft after averaging 16.6 points, 6.5 assists and 4.3 assists a game and leading the Wildcats to a 35-3 record. Henry was the 12th overall pick by the Memphis Grizzlies in the same draft.
Wall said had Henry committed to Kentucky, he would have chose the University of Miami.
