De'Aaron Fox knew coming to UK would help his NBA chances. (Vicky Graff Photo)
De’Aaron Fox blossomed into a star point guard during his one year at Kentucky when he averaged 16.7 points, 4.6 assists, 4.1 rebounds and 1.5 steals per game for a team that lost in the 2017 Elite Eight to North Carolina. He was the fifth pick in the 2017 NBA draft by Sacramento. He’s now played in 217 NBA games averaging 16.4 points, 6.1 assists and 3.4 rebounds per game while shooting 45 percent from the field.
He was a five-star recruit out of Texas who always knew he wanted to go to Kentucky even though he had Louisville, Kansas, LSU and Arizona on his final five list. But he always felt Kentucky and John Calipari would get him better prepared to play in the NBA where he has flourished. He signed a five-year, $160 million contract extension with the Kings before the season started.
But he dropped this nugget during an appearance on “All The Smoke” podcast with former NBA players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson.
“Cal couldn’t give a damn about winning college basketball games,” Fox said.
For many critics of Calipari, this just adds fuel to the fire about his one-and-done factory many Kentucky fans have been complaining about — especially this 4-7 season. However, it’s really not fair just to focus on that sentence without knowing exactly all Fox said.
“Cal couldn’t give a damn about winning college basketball games. If he’s getting guys who he knows he can end up developing into NBA players, you’re automatically going to win 30 games a year just from that alone. That’s what I loved,” Fox said.
“You came in, you had to earn everything. He made you work. At the end of the day, I was a top-five pick, Bam (Adebayo) and Malik (Monk) were lottery picks. That’s all you can ask for. We lost in the Elite Eight, obviously we were mad as hell, but that wasn’t going to make me stay (for a sophomore season at UK).”
Kentucky did win 32 games that year with a talent-laden roster. This year the Cats may be lucky to get to 10 wins after the 20-point beatdown from Alabama left the record at 4-7.
Fox noted that Calipari told him, Monk and Adebayo they were “all done and not coming back” less than 30 minutes after the North Carolina loss.
Fox told Barnes and Jackson he still talks often to Calipari.
“He lets you rock. That’s why he wants guards like John (Wall) and myself and (Brandon) Knight, Tyler Ulis. The way that he coaches, it’s like absolute freedom. He’ll put X’s and O’s but at the end of the day, everything’s going to end up in a pick and roll or isolation. That’s what the NBA is too.”
Maybe when he has a Fox, Wall, Knight or Ulis, that Calipari strategy works. It’s not this year and maybe that will make Calipari rethink his philosophy about NBA focus at all times.
