John Wall dreamed of going to North Carolina to play basketball. Instead, he went to Kentucky and became a consensus All-American and a No. 1 overall pick in the NBA Draft.
But as a recruit, the Raleigh, North Carolina native was completely turned off by the Tar Heels.
Wall was a guest on the Run Your Race podcast with former Carolina guard Theo Pinson on Tuesday. In the interview, Wall said North Carolina was his top choice to attend college until the Tar Heels messed things up.
“I wanted to go to Carolina, that’s my dream school. I’ll tell you the story about that, a lot of people don’t know that. They f—d it up,” Wall said. “They was the only one that could have gotten me not to go play for Coach Cal. Because my mom had gotten sick, had an aneurysm … and I’m like, ‘I can’t leave home, I’ve got to stay close. That’s my best friend.’”
And Wall said NC State wasn’t on the table because he felt it would be so close to home that he’d never be on campus.
But why wasn’t UNC involved? Wall recalled a slight from former UNC standout Tyler Hansbrough when he was on his visit.
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.
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