LEXINGTON — Shaedon Sharpe’s gamble paid off.
Announced as Kentucky basketball’s first selection in the 2022 NBA draft despite never playing a game for the Wildcats, Sharpe was picked at No. 7 overall by the Portland Trailblazers in the first round Thursday.
Sharpe, formerly ranked as the No. 1 prospect in the high school class of 2022 before reclassifying to graduate a semester early and enroll at UK in January, and Kentucky coach John Calipari insisted throughout the spring semester while Sharpe was practicing with the team that the plan was for him to redshirt in preparation for taking on a starring role for Kentucky next season. Even after injuries decimated Kentucky’s backcourt depth late in the season, Sharpe and Calipari stuck to that plan.
The 6-foot-6, 200-pound Canadian then declared for the draft in April while leaving open the possibility of a return to Kentucky despite multiple national reports that he had already made up his mind to stay in the draft. On May 31, the eve of the deadline for college players to remove their names from the draft, Sharpe confirmed he was starting a professional career.
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“Circumstances changed,” Calipari said the day before Sharpe’s final announcement. “Now, for me, I want to coach the kid, I want him back at Kentucky, but if he’s a top-10 pick and he’s your son, it’s a hard one. … If he’s a top-10 pick, 8 pick, 7, it’s not that hard (of a decision). I just don’t want our fans to be mad at him for doing something he probably has to do if that’s the case.”
Why did Shaedon Sharpe not play for Kentucky?
When Sharpe arrived at Kentucky midway through the 2021-22 season it made sense to keep him on the sideline considering he needed time to learn the Wildcats’ system as well as adapt to the physical challenges of college basketball. Since Kentucky was cruising at the time — the Wildcats’ best win came in a blowout at Kansas at the end of January — there was little reason to force him into the rotation.
Sharpe’s mentor, his former AAU coach Dwyane Washington, was particularly insistent that Sharpe was only practicing in order to help him prepare for next season at Kentucky.
“Why would he come to Kentucky — turn away $1 million in the G League, $2 million in endorsements, practice three hours a day — to sit on the bench? You come for development,” Washington told the Lexington Herald-Leader in January after reports first surfaced that Sharpe would be eligible for the 2022 draft. “Here’s the thing that people have to understand: everybody is not trying to rush to something that they’re not ready for.
“He’s expecting to play next year. Nothing is new here.”
Calipari publicly flirted with the idea of playing Sharpe in early February — going as far as to say the other UK players wanted Sharpe to play — before announcing on Feb. 7 he was sticking with the original plan for Sharpe only to practice with the team. That plan did not change even as all three of Kentucky’s starting guards were hampered by injuries down the stretch.
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After Kentucky’s season-ending loss to No. 15-seed Saint Peter’s in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, Calipari was asked by the Courier Journal if he had reconsidered playing Sharpe after the injuries began to mount.
“At one point, he and I sat down and talked about it,” Calipari said. “But you know, I think that was what was best for him is how we did it. Would he have been a good player this year? Yeah, he’d been pretty good. He’d have been pretty good. But he joined us midseason. Trying to get him up to all the stuff that we were doing was hard.
“Then it came a point late, maybe we could, should have him in there. We just, you know, together, chose, let’s just wait.”
What are expectations for Shaedon Sharpe in the NBA?
There is no greater mystery in the 2022 draft pool since Sharpe has not played in a competitive game since the beginning of the 2021-22 high school season. NBA scouts did get a chance to see him play in person during the 2021 Nike EYBL season, during which he averaged 22.6 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game.
“Shaedon can do everything,” said former Kentucky teammate Sahvir Wheeler, the two-time Southeastern Conference leader in assists per game. “Shaedon is a great teammate. … He was the first one to celebrate with us, and he was also the first one there to pick us up when something went wrong. It never felt like he wasn’t a part of the team. Even when he came in in December or whatever it was, it felt like he was there the whole year. That’s how good of a teammate he was.
“On the court, he’s a freaky athlete, stupid athletic. He can handle it, he can shoot the ball in any scenario, coming off pin-downs, catch-and-shoot, creating shots for himself. He’s unselfish. He’s not as good of a passer as me, but he’s definitely unselfish and he’s willing to make the right play.”
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A lack of confidence does not appear to be a problem after the long layoff from playing in games.
“I see myself being one of the greatest players to ever play the game of basketball,” Sharpe said in pre-draft interviews.
Email Jon Hale at [email protected]; Follow him on Twitter at @JonHale_CJ.