John Wall grew up 10 seconds down Davie Street from Hunter Elementary School and he remembers running to the school to play when he was a little boy. He was on the same playground Monday morning as the school welcomed 600 first- through fifth-graders to the first day of school with a field day starring Wall, former neighbor and current NBA star. Wall later joked that the children had no idea who he was. Few, if any, knew his story. A great player who struggled through adolescence following the death of his father when he was 9 years old, Wall was the top-ranked basketball prospect in the country when he was a senior at Raleigh Word of God Academy and the first player taken in the 2010 NBA draft after one year at Kentucky.
Walter Cornett, of Glendale, Kentucky, is the owner and operator of Walter's Wildcat World. He founded WildcatWorld.com in 1998 making it one of the oldest Kentucky basketball fan sites in operation today.