When John Wall wanted to leave Kentucky…after his first practice

since his arrival on the bench KentuckyAt the beginning of the 2009/10 season, John Calipari Players who joined the NBA after just one season on the NCAA Tour produced 32 singles. His first in Lexington? John WallThe first pick of the 2010 Draft after a great “freshman” season under the Wildcats uniform (16.6 points, 4.3 rebounds and 6.5 assists).

The former Wizards All-Star point guard, now a “role player” on the Clippers side, has actually embodied the “blueprint” of what has been Coach Cal’s legacy at Kentucky for 13 years now: recruiting, one year at a time, the nation’s best high schoolers, one season on campus then make them NBA players.

But John Wall had a tough time before the divisive Wildcats technician had his first “one-and-done.” He even considered leaving the program after the team’s first summer practice in 2009. The fault of very intense training, for a person who was then only 18 years old.

one” welcome to college moment “, to use Theo Pinson’s terms, which he detailed on a recent episode of his show, Run Your Race.

” trainer [Calipari] he told me to do a bunch of things, but i was a bit arrogant, i just did what he wanted, i told him he had no choice but to play me in all situations. He replied: “I don’t care who you are, if I decide not to play you in such and such a match, you will not play.” In short, there was training, we had to be ready to commit 20 suicides in 20 minutes at 6 in the morning. Not at 5:59, not at 6:01, but at 6 am sharp. The defenders had 28 seconds to complete their suicide, then 32 seconds to punt. And 20 times in a row, the clock never stopped! They had just over 30 seconds in the interior. The first ten are classic suicides. The last two were extreme: from a baseline to another baseline, then from a throw line to another throw line, and so on. In the end, I felt like my legs were going to separate from my body… I went back to my room, called my mother and asked her if I could leave right away. I told him that this is not how I imagined my varsity season! »

Then John Wall will offer another snarky anecdote, this time about DeMarcus Cousins, his teammate that season, also before he was a “lottery pick” (5th overall in Sacramento).

” In another exercise, Boogie [surnom de DeMarcus Cousins, ndlr] he was running and complaining that his legs hurt. Cal’ replied to him: ‘This damn exercise is over!’. DeMarcus kicked off his shoes and sat on the side. Cal’ told us afterwards: ‘Too bad for you, if he’d finished his training I’d give you the day off tomorrow.’ Obviously, it wasn’t true, but he was teasing us John Wall remembers. ” And the worst thing is that we were punished! The next day we had to commit 20 more suicides! Boogie sat quietly watching us. We wanted to break it! »