UK Men’s Basketball Well Represented at NBA All-Star Weekend
ATLANTA – Kentucky will make its annual presence felt at NBA All-Star weekend with six Wildcats either participating or earning recognition to the league’s showcase of talent.
Headlined by the selections of Devin Booker, Anthony Davis and Julius Randle to the All-Star Game, UK will touch nearly every part of All-Star weekend.
Davis, was picked for his UK record eighth All-Star Game but will not participate due to injury. Booker is making his second straight appearance and Randle is appearing in his first-ever game.
Kentucky’s three selections are tied for the most of any other college program and marks the sixth time in the last seven seasons at least three former UK players have been chosen for the NBA All-Star Game. It is the eighth straight season Kentucky has led the country in All-Star selections (tied or led outright).
Festivities begin from State Farm Arena in Atlanta at 5 p.m. on TNT with the 3-Point Contest and Skills Challenge – which will also feature a couple of Wildcats – set for 6:30 p.m. Randle will compete in the Skills Competition and Booker will make another appearance in the 3-Point Contest. It will mark the fifth time Booker has competed in the event. He won the event in 2018 with a record 28-point performance on 20-of-25 attempts.
The All-Star Game will tip at 8 p.m. on TNT.
There will not be a Rising Stars Game this season due to the limitation of having All-Star events all on one night, but players were honored with selections. Kentucky led the league with three players in Tyler Herro, Keldon Johnson and Mychal Mulder.
Kentucky has enjoyed unprecedented success at putting players in the NBA under John Calipari. In the 11-plus seasons of the Calipari era, 41 players have been selected in the NBA Draft, more than any other school. Included in the recent run are 31 first-round picks, three No. 1 overall selections (Davis, Karl-Anthony Towns and John Wall) and 21 lottery selections. A staggering 31 players from Kentucky were on 2020-21 NBA opening-day rosters (including two-way and inactive lists), the most of any school.
Calipari’s players are not only reaching the next level, they are succeeding when they do. Since 2010, eight of players have now garnered 26 All-Star selections with the latest picks. Derrick Rose (from Memphis) was named league MVP in 2011. Five of his players have been tabbed All-NBA (Rose, Wall, Davis, DeMarcus Cousins and Towns), three have been named NBA Rookie of the Year (Rose, Tyreke Evans and Towns), and 14 players from Calipari’s first 10 teams at Kentucky have made the NBA All-Rookie teams.
Using figures compiled by basketball-reference.com and spotrac.com, Calipari-coached players only (which includes Rose but not Rajon Rondo) have amassed nearly $3 billion ($2.96) in career NBA contracts. In the 11 seasons Calipari has been the head coach at Kentucky, his players have totaled nearly $2.6 billion in NBA contracts.
DEVIN BOOKER
Booker was a member of the UK team that became the first in collegiate history to begin the season 38-0 during its unprecedented run to the Final Four in 2015.
In his sixth NBA season, Booker leads the Suns and is 16th in the league with 24.9 points per game. He is adding 4.4 assists and 3.6 rebounds per game to lead the Suns to a 24-11 record to begin the season, second in the Western Conference standings. In 2020, Booker became the fourth-youngest player in NBA history to score 7,000 career points. He also scored 70 points in a game in his second season in the league.
Although this is his second NBA All-Star Game, Booker has had a consistent presence at All-Star weekend with four 3-Point Shooting Contest appearances – including winning in 2018 – a Skills Challenge appearance and two games in the Rising Stars Challenge.
Booker was the SEC Sixth Man of the Year during UK’s magical 2014-15 season. He averaged 10.0 points, 2.0 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game, while also sinking 58 3-pointers. He won four straight SEC Freshman of the Week honors and earned a league-high five overall awards. He was drafted 13th overall by the Suns in 2015.
ANTHONY DAVIS
Davis is in his ninth season in the NBA and second for the reigning NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers. He is the team’s second-leading scorer and leader in rebounds, blocks and steals per game but will not play in the All-Star Game this season due to an injury.
Davis was averaging 22.5 points, 8.4 rebounds, 1.8 blocks and 1.3 steals per game, all among the league leaders prior to his injury. His value has never been more evident with the Lakers losing seven of 10 games since Davis left the Feb. 14 game vs. Denver.
In 2017, Davis won MVP honors at the All-Star Game on what was then his home court in New Orleans. He scored an All-Star Game record 52 points in addition to contributing 10 rebounds. Davin broke Wilt Chamberlain’s previous scoring record of 42 points set in 1962.
Named the 2012 NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player after leading Kentucky to the 2012 national championship, Davis has already put together a long list of accolades in the NBA during his short career. Among his most noteworthy achievements, he’s a four-time All-NBA First Team selection (2015, 2017, 2018 and 2020) and made the NBA All-Rookie Team in 2013. He was considered the consensus national player of the year in 2012 before being drafted No. 1 overall by the New Orleans Pelicans (formerly the New Orleans Hornets) in 2012.
Davis helped lead the Lakers to the 2020 NBA championship – his first – played in Orlando last summer. He averaged 27.7 points, 9.7 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game during the Lakers’ playoff run.
TYLER HERRO
Herro is in the NBA Rising Stars Game for a second season but he is already a bona fide star after a sensational run to the NBA Finals in 2020.
Herro captivated NBA fans with an unwavering confidence seen in few rookies during the NBA bubble run in Orlando. He hit clutch shot after clutch shot during the postseason, highlighted by a 37-point night vs. the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference finals. According to StatMuse, he became the youngest player in NBA history to drop 30 points in a playoff game off the bench and was the youngest player in NBA history to start in the NBA Finals, edging Hall of Famer Magic Johnson.
The second-year Miami Heat guard has continued to shine this season. Although Herro has been limited a bit by injuries, he is averaging 15.8 points, 5.7 rebounds and 3.6 assists for the Heat while shooting 43.8% from the floor.
Herro enjoyed a prolific freshman campaign for the Wildcats in 2018-19 where he was tabbed to the NCAA Tournament All-Midwest Region Team and was the SEC’s Newcomer of the Year by the Associated Press. He was an All-SEC Second Team pick and a Basketball Times All-Freshman First Team selection. He averaged 14.0 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game for the Wildcats who moved on to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament after he knocked down a game-winning 3-pointer against Houston in the Sweet 16. Herro was drafted 13th overall by the Heat in the 2019 NBA Draft.
KELDON JOHNSON
After Johnson fell all the way to the Spurs with the 29th pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, Calipari predicted a lot of teams would regret not taking the bouncy guard. He was right.
The Spurs took their time with Johnson before unleashing him in the NBA bubble in Orlando last season, and now he has quickly turned into one of the game’s best young players for a Spurs team that is in the hunt in the Western Conference and currently in seventh place at 18-14.
In the G-League at this point in the season last year, Johnson is now a full-time starter averaging 14.1 points, 6.7 rebounds and 2.2 assists on 47.2% shooting. He has scored 20 or more points five time this season and has three double-doubles.
Johnson was a part of that memorable 2018-19 team that advanced to the Elite Eight team. He averaged 13.5 points per game and 5.9 rebounds per outing and shot 46.1% from the field and 38.1 % from long range. He averaged 14.6 points and 5.7 rebounds while shooting 48.9% in UK’s 12 matchups with Associated Press Top 25 foes. The league’s head coaches named Johnson its SEC Freshman of the Year and he was also tabbed to the All-SEC Freshman Team and All-SEC Second Team.
MYCHAL MULDER
Mulder was selected for the NBA Rising Stars Game as a part of the World Team. His journey and success to the NBA has been defined by persistence.
Mulder played two seasons at Kentucky but played limited minutes on two highly talented rosters. After leaving UK in 2017, Mulder spent the next two and a half seasons in the G League before earning an opportunity with the Golden State Warriors after averaging 17.0 points in his 2019-20 G-League season. He wouldn’t look back.
Providing Golden State with dependable outside shooting and defense, Mulder turned heads by averaging 11.0 points in seven appearances in 2019-20. He has earned a roster spot with the Warriors this season and is averaging 4.1 points in 34 games with two starts. Mulder is shooting 40.9% from long range.
Mulder played two seasons at UK. He was a part of the 2016 and 2017 SEC championship teams (regular season and tournament) and averaged 4.7 points for the 2017 team that came within a game of the Final Four.
JULIUS RANDLE
Randle has the surprising New York Knicks off to a 19-18 record and a fifth-place showing in the standings to this point. He has been the centerpiece to the resurgence for Tom Thibodeau in his first season as head coach. Randle is averaging team bests in points per game (23.2), rebounds (11.1) and assists (5.5).
Earlier this season, Randle became the fifth player in NBA history with at least 550 points, 275 rebounds, 145 assists in their first 25 games of the season, demonstrating his all-around impact and versatility. He is tied for fourth in the league with 24 double doubles, 10th in rebounds per game and 24th in points per game.
Randle started in all 40 games for the Wildcats in 2014 en route to an NCAA championship game appearance following one of the most memorable runs in postseason history. He led the team with 15.0 points per game and 10.4 rebounds. Randle set the UK single-season freshman record in rebounds (417), double-doubles (24) and made free throws (204). Randle’s 24 double doubles also led the nation that season.
Randle was an All-America Third Team selection by the National Association of Basketball Coaches, U.S. Basketball Writers Association and the Associated Press. He was tabbed the SEC Freshman of the Year and was an All-SEC First Team selection. He was also a member of the Midwest Region NCAA All-Tournament Team and the Final Four NCAA All-Tournament Team.
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