Suns' Devin Booker huge part of Kentucky having record seven NBA All-Stars this year
INDIANAPOLIS — John Calipari is doing everything possible to make it to Indianapolis for Sunday’s 2024 NBA All-Star game to see six of his former Kentucky players on the grandest stage.
The Wildcats play Saturday at Auburn, but Calipari should be back in Lexington, Kentucky, which is a short flight to Indiana, in time for the 8 p.m. (EST) game.
Just one thing missing.
“All those guys that I prepared, not one of them offered me a ticket,” Calipari said, laughing. “It’s OK. And I take them to dinner, even now, they absolutely expect me to pick up the tab.”
Surely Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker, Los Angeles Lakers big Anthony Davis or Oklahoma City Thunder point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander could hook Calipari up.
Maybe Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo, Minnesota Timberwolves big Karl-Anthony Towns or Philadelphia 76ers point guard Tyrese Maxey can make it happen.
New York Knicks power forward Julius Randle won’t play due to injury, but bet he has some connections.
Calipari should be there to witness a historic moment he played a huge role in creating.
Kentucky established a new NBA record for most All-Star selections from a single school in a single year this season with seven, breaking its own mark of four shared with UCLA, which set it back in 1983.
UK matched it in 2018 and 2023 before nearly doubling that number this season.
NBA Basketball: Takeaways from Suns win vs. Pistons, Devin Booker ejection
“It’s the Kentucky effect,” Davis said. “There are a ton of great players in the league right now dominating from Kentucky and it just shows you the dominance that the school has.”
Kentucky had the most NBA players entering this season at 26 followed by Duke at 24 and UCLA with 15, but having seven All-Stars in a single year is unprecedented.
Still falling short of Calipari’s dream goal, though.
“I remember Coach Cal talking to me about it and I think one time, he said he wants 10 guys in it,” Maxey said.
Add two more.
“My goal for the last few years is let’s get 12 of our guys in that game, which means 12 of the best players in the universe played with us and trained with us,” Calipari said.
That’d be half the All-Stars as East and West each have 12-man rosters.
With Indianapolis being the closest NBA city to Lexington, Big Blue Nation will surely show up Sunday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse to cheer on their former star Wildcats.
“It’s going to be really cool to be able to go out there and represent our school and make Kentucky proud,” Towns said.
2023-24 NBA Start-Of-Season Roster Highlights:
10 U.S. schools have 10 or more players on @NBA start-of-seasons rosters. Kentucky has the most players for the 12th consecutive year. pic.twitter.com/RqTtRml0PF— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) October 26, 2023
‘Want you to be pros’
Gilgeous-Alexander was voted a West backcourt starter while the remaining six made it as reserves chosen by NBA head coaches.
Davis has the most All-Star selections of the seven with nine followed by Booker (4), Towns (4), Adebayo (3), Randle (3), Gilgeous-Alexander (2) and Maxey (1).
“That just speaks to the high level of athletes we have going through our school,” Adebayo said.
Booker credits two men for this amazing achievement.
“Coach Calipari, Coach Kenny Payne,” he said. “Those guys have the recipe. They breed stars. They treat you like pros and they want you to be pros. Some teams are picking up on it, but Cal was the first one to promote sending your best players to the league after one year.”
Booker wasn’t considered a one-and-done coming out of Moss Point, Mississippi, at age 17, as he showed NBA potential not only in games but during practices with league scouts and general managers watching.
Word spread fast. Yo, that Booker kid is ready.
It’s time.
“Even when I was thinking about it, (Calipari) said, ‘Take your ass on,’” added a smiling Booker, the youngest player in the 2015 draft at age 18.
Draft history made on June 24, 2010
Calipari brought the one-and-done to college basketball when traditionalists weren’t feeling it. He established it in Memphis coaching Dajuan Wagner and Derrick Rose, the No. 1 pick in 2008.
“I tore up his scholarship to make it clear he’s not coming back,” Calipari said about Wagner, the sixth overall selection in 2002. “I tore it up. You can’t come back.”
That was Memphis, though. To bring that approach to UK, the now second-most winningest program, had the schools competing for the nation’s best high school talent in an uproar.
Calipari had already drawn criticism for his involvement in NCAA rules violations. Now he’s landing the best high school players and telling them they can turn pro after one year in college.
He was named Kentucky head coach April 1, 2009. After a 35-win season, Calipari basked in watching five of his players taken in the first round of the 2010 draft.
That had never happened before. John Wall went No. 1 overall after his freshman season.
The game hasn’t been the same since. Kentucky has had 47 players drafted in Calipari’s first 14 seasons, 12 more during that span to the next closest school in Duke.
“He prepares us for the stage,” Sacramento Kings forward Trey Lyles, one of four Kentucky lottery selections in 2015 in tying the most from one school in draft history.
Towns went No. 1 followed by Willie Cauley-Stein (6th), Lyles (12th) and Booker (13th). Towns, Lyles and Booker were freshmen.
“Prepares us for things maybe other coaches can’t prepare the players for and he gets the best players,” Lyles said. “He knows what’s coming to you in the future, which is the league.”
Family first at Kentucky
It’s more than just helping a young man fulfill a childhood dream. It’s helping put him in a position to tell his family they don’t have to work another day again.
“Cal does a great job of not making it about college,” said Adebayo, the 14th overall pick in 2017 after a one-and-done.
“He wants us to do bigger and better things. He wants us to take care of our families. When you give kids that type of mindset and that type of confidence, the sky is the limit. Instead of trying to make us four-year players, he wants us to do the best we can in college and then go take care of our family.”
Calipari recalls talking to Demarcus Cousins about whether or not to return for his sophomore year.
“If you want to do what’s right for me and my family, you should stay,” Calipari said. “If you want to do what’s right for you and your family, you should leave. I’ve used that a couple of different times.”
Cousins left and was part of that 2010 class as he was selected fifth overall.
Signing with Kentucky is the starting point, getting drafted completes the mission, but what happens between fuels the journey.
Enter Payne.
Calipari makes those tough decisions on who to play among multiple McDonald’s All-Americans, but Payne worked them to the brink as an assistant in preparation for the league. Payne served 10 years at Kentucky where he became known for player development.
“Guys like Kenny Payne, who spent time in the gym with those guys,” said Calipari as Payne is in his second season as head coach at Louisville. “But more importantly, it was the competitiveness that no one was promised anything. You learn to be a great teammate cause you got to share cause it’s not just you.”
The intense competition forces players to bring it or else.
“If you don’t come to play every practice, you get dunked on,” Calipari said. “And it shows. Like ‘Man, what was wrong with you today?’ And then lastly, every game we play is like somebody’s Super Bowl. They played games where every game was a war.”
The struggle can be real, but it separates the best from the rest.
“When you’re in practice, you’re looking at that time, three or four guys who were top two, top three in their position and in the nation coming into college,” Adebayo said. “You didn’t have just one go-to guy. Everybody was the go-to guy. You had to separate yourself, but also sacrifice at the same time.”
‘Star in your role’
Booker may be the most unique of the seven. He’s become one of the league’s best players after being a non-starter at Kentucky.
In his ninth NBA season, Booker is averaging a career-high 27.5 points and seven assists.
“Book had to go a different route, but we all knew he was capable,” Lyles said.
Sacrifice is everything. That’s asking a lot of five-star recruits, but Calipari calls upon players to shine in their roles.
“He teaches you how to work like a pro,” said Kings point guard De’Aaron Fox, a first-time All-Star last season. “You have a defined role when you get into college, you get into the league, you develop a little bit more and you show more things that you have, but Cal shows that once you’re in the NBA, unless you’re a superstar, you have to have a role and you want to be a star in your role.”
One more? Kentucky came close
Maxey is the latest first-time All-Star out of Kentucky. Having a career season, Maxey is cranking out 25.7 points and 6.4 assists in his fourth NBA season.
“It feels great,” Maxey said, the 21st overall selection in 2020 after a one-and-done. “Coach Cal told me he’s extremely proud of me, certainly proud of his guys. He really pushes that. He wants us to be successful and to have the best possible version of ourselves when we’re all said and done.”
As crazy as seven All-Stars from one school sounds, Kentucky could’ve easily had one more in Fox.
Averaging 30 points at one point in the season, Fox is having a career year for a team that made the playoffs last season and is in postseason contention this season in a tough Western Conference.
“Even last year, he was an injury reserve pick, which is crazy to me,” Lyles said. “He’s one of the top two, top three point guards in the league for the past two years and he’s able to do thing that other players aren’t. He’s on a playoff team. Everybody is a little surprised by it, but the work he’s put in, he continues to put in, I think he’ll say it himself, he’s playing for more than just All-Star games.”
No worries.
“It doesn’t matter to me,” said Fox, the fifth overall pick in 2017 after a one-and-done who is averaging a career-high 26.8 points this season. “I get to go on an All-Star break and actually have a break. I saw it last year. As an All-Star, you don’t really get a break. I’m not pressed about it at all.”
Fox will likely make it again, but who’ll be the next UK All-Star?
Enter Jamal Murray.
Murray plays with the game’s best in two-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic in a small market.
The West is filled with tremendous guards like All-Stars Luka Doncic, Stephen Curry, Anthony Edwards, Booker, Gilgeous-Alexander and even Fox, but Murray showed out in helping the Denver Nuggets win their first NBA championship last season.
Murray averaged 26.1 points, 7.1 assists and 5.7 rebounds in the 2023 postseason. He’s averaging 20.5 points this season, shooting a career-best 41.1% from 3, but no All-Star nod.
No worries.
“Knowing Jamal the way I do, his thing will be, well, we’ll just go win another championship and you can figure out whether I’m an All-Star or not,” Calipari said.
Starting 5
With Davis being the elder statesman of the 2024 UK NBA All-Stars, he was asked to pick a Kentucky All-Star starting five.
“I would go with (Rajon) Rondo, John Wall, Book, myself and Boogie (Cousins) with KAT right on the cusp,” he said.
Adebayo choose a starting five out of this year’s Kentucky All-Stars.
“It’d be Shai, D-Book, me, KAT and AD,” Adebayo said.
Calipari chose the same five.
“That would be a hell of a team,” Calipari said. “I don’t know how you guard that team.
With his mind working, Calipari put Maxey in the lineup for Davis for a three-guard look.
“Oh my God,” Calipari said.
Have opinions about the current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-787-1240. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @DuaneRankin.
Support local journalism. Start your online subscription.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Devin Booker reveals why Kentucky has record seven NBA All-Stars
