Okay, so, I’ve been digging into this whole Kentucky basketball thing, and let me tell you, it’s been a wild ride. I wanted to see how many of these Kentucky guys actually made it to the big leagues, the NBA. It started with a simple question: “How many Kentucky basketball players are in the NBA?” So I started off using my go-to search engine and started typing in “kentucky basketball players in the nba” and man, did I find a lot of stuff.
First off, I noticed right away that there are a ton of them. The most recent info I could find says there were 29 former Kentucky players on NBA rosters when the 2024 season started. That’s a lot! And get this, Kentucky has been leading in this area for like 13 years straight. That’s a pretty big deal. And this number includes two-way and inactive players as well.
I started making a list of some of the big names. You got Karl-Anthony Towns, who was the number one pick in 2015 by the Minnesota Timberwolves. Then there’s John Wall, another number one pick, but back in 2010 for the Washington Wizards. And Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, who went second overall to the Charlotte Hornets in 2012. And I found that recently in the 2024 NBA Draft, there were two Kentucky Wildcats selected in the top 10. Reed Sheppard went No.3 overall, while Rob Dillingham was picked at No.8.
But then I decided to do a little more digging. There is a website that has a list, it says “30 players found” on its website and lists all the players from Kentucky who played in the NBA since 1946. Like, I saw names like Bam Adebayo, Chuck Aleksinas, and even a guy named Dwight Anderson. The list seemed endless and the website says there are 137 rows in total. But then I found another website that says there are actually 154 players drafted and 124 played in NBA, and the list on this website is even longer with 177 rows of data! One of them is Alex Groza who was drafted in the first round in 1949. I was like, who are these people? It’s crazy how many players there are.
I also found another website saying that Bam Adebayo only played one season at Kentucky in 2016-17 and is currently playing for the Miami Heat. There are so many websites I found online with the names of Kentucky basketball players, for example, there is one says Jemarl Baker.
So then, just for kicks, I looked up the first British player in the NBA. Turns out, it was a guy named Chris Harris. He was born in Southampton but moved to New York ’cause his family was in the shipping business. He played in the 1955-56 season. Pretty cool, huh?
After spending hours on this, I put together a pretty comprehensive list. It’s not just the stars, but also the guys who maybe didn’t play as much but still made it to the NBA. There are so many names and so much data, so I put all these into a spreadsheet.
- Column 1: Player Name
- Column 2: Draft Year
- Column 3: Draft Round
- Column 4: Overall Pick
It’s a pretty solid list if I do say so myself. I felt like a real sports analyst putting all this together. And it really shows how dominant Kentucky has been in producing NBA talent over the years. They’re like an NBA player factory over there!
This whole thing was way more involved than I thought it would be, but it was also pretty fun. And I have realized how hard it is to find the correct numbers since there are different numbers on different websites. But I have learned a lot about Kentucky basketball and its impact on the NBA. Now, if anyone asks me about Kentucky basketball players in the NBA, I’ve got a whole speech ready to go!