In the world of college basketball, recruiting battles for the country’s top high school talent are nearly as hard-fought as those on the hardwood. Sometimes bad blood lingers for years on end, which appears to be the case in the latest bit of drama involving blue blood programs North Carolina and Kentucky.
Former Wildcats star and current Clippers guard John Wall said in an interview with the Run Your Race podcast that his dream destination out of high school was North Carolina, and that the only thing that prevented him from becoming a Tar Heel was a slight by former UNC legend Tyler Hansbrough. As Wall recalls, he was given the cold shoulder when he tried to introduce himself to Hansbrough.
“So I go on the visit, Ty Lawson and them are there. Tyler Hansbrough’s got his own section … I’m the recruit, I walk up and say, ‘What’s up.’ He said, ‘I don’t talk to recruits.’ I was like, ‘F— you, I ain’t coming here.’ That f—– it up right there.”
That’s not how Hansbrough remembers it. The former National Player of the Year took to Twitter for a strongly-worded rebuttal in which he took a shot at Kentucky coach John Calipari, heavily insinuating that the real reason Wall ended up at Kentucky was simple: money.
Even though this beef is nearly a decade and a half old, here’s betting that we haven’t heard the last about it just yet.
