As John Calipari has said many times, playing at Kentucky is not for everybody.
It takes a certain kind of personality to flourish in the fishbowl environment of playing for the Wildcats, but one player who basked in the glow of that spotlight was Ramel Bradley.
Now, the young man affectionately known as “Smooth” is playing professional basketball in Israel with the hope — and a plan — for reaching the NBA.
“I started up this thing called ‘The One-Year Plan,’ ” Bradley said in a recent appearance on “The Leach Report” radio show. “I started it out this summer. Life is about goals and going after your dreams, and as I have come to learn, tomorrow is not promised to anyone. If you don’t come after the things you want in life and don’t do it today, then when will you do it? So, I am putting myself in the position to play the best basketball I can play and have the right people in my corner that believe in me, and by next year this time, I am back in the NBA.”
Bradley said there’s more to it than just playing well on the court. “It is timing, it is push and it is also momentum,” Bradley said. “This year, I am trying to build my momentum, my brand and have my agent have those guys look at me and have those guys stay on my trail and continue to keep up with the things I am doing over here. It is so easy when you leave the states to be out of sight out of mind, so I am staying on top of him on those things. I also have my publicist, who is working very hard for me to keep me, give me all the interviews so that people won’t forget about me and perform my best each and every basketball game while I’m over here. So far it is going really well.”
Bradley plays for Maccabi Ashdod and his team sat in second place in the Israel Premier League standings at the time of the interview. Bradley was also his team’s second-leading scorer and ranked second in steals.
“It is actually pretty fun,” Bradley said of playing overseas. “I go outside and everyone knows who I am. The weather is gorgeous. It was about 75 degrees today so I cannot complain at all. We practice normally either once or twice a day and we play either Sunday or Monday. Other than that, I stretch. I am obsessed with stretching and doing yoga. It makes my body feel really good.
“I might head to Tel Aviv and catch a movie at the cinema or just relax (in my spare time). I am on Skype with my family a whole lot. I am really focused on this year and I really have to be dedicated because if you aren’t dedicated in the things you want to go after, then you can’t get to your goals and there is really no point.”
Bradley said the competition in Israel includes some former NBA players as well as players he knows from his college days at Kentucky.
But “nothing compares to Big Blue fans at all and that is anywhere on the planet,” Bradley said. “These guys get pretty crazy. They are banging drums and shooting confetti in the air and screaming and hollering. It is pretty crazy. They want to hug you at the end of the game and kiss you on your check it is pretty crazy. It is something to see.”
Bradley has been keeping close tabs on his alma mater, where he scored 1,326 career points from 2005-08. He said he watches the Cats “all the time.”
“Anytime they play, if I can catch the game online, I will watch it,” said Bradley, who says he gets regular updates from Cat fans on his Twitter and Facebook pages. “Other than that, I wake up the next morning and check the scores right away.”
What does he remember most about his days at UK?
“What don’t I remember?” Bradley said. “If I had to say one thing that stands out in my mind is when we got that win over Florida (on Senior Day in 2008) and everyone was so excited. I remember looking up in the stands at Rupp and was like, ‘Wow, this will be the last time on this court.’ It was such an amazing feeling and I remember me hugging my boy Joe Crawford. I need to get back on that hardwood. I want to get back to do that ‘Y.’ Me and Joe, I want us to do it together. I really want to get back to that.”
And Bradley admits to wondering wistfully how much fun he would have had playing in head coach John Calipari’s Dribble Drive Motion offense.
“Coach Cal is a great coach, and any players that I speak to who played under him, they just say it is a pleasure to play for someone like that because he lets you play,” Bradley said. “For someone like a guard, you can really go out and showcase your talents and it’s a lot of fun. It is unfortunate that I couldn’t play under him, but I really think I would have thrived under him.”
Fans can keep up with Bradley through his website, dreamsmooth.com. You’ll see how his basketball life is going and you can also keep with Bradley’s musical exploits.
“It is going pretty good,” he said of his musical career. “Actually, I was selected as one of the All-Stars in Israel and I got to perform my song called ‘Fly’ at halftime to all the people in Israel so, it was really good. Other than that, I have put the music on the back burner for basketball for this year.”
It’s not a part of The One-Year Plan to get back to the NBA.
