McDonald's All-American Games Photo
Since the high school season ended it seems that Kentucky basketball signee Aaron Bradshaw has stayed in the headlines.
— Final recruiting rankings raised him as high as No. 2 nationally.
— The 7-1 center impressed everyone with his play at the McDonald’s All-American Game and showcased his outside shooting ability.
— He revealed that he wanted to play power forward, not center, at Kentucky and had the blessing of Kentucky coach John Calipari to do that.
But now comes speculation that Calipari and Kentucky fans certainly do not need. With Bronny James, the son of NBA superstar, committing to USC, rumors started that Bradshaw might renege on his commitment to UK and go play with James.
Bradshaw shares the same agency as LeBron and Bronny James — Klutch Sports. It’s the same agency Chris Livingston has and he put his name into the NBA Draft after one year at UK. It’s also the same agency representing UK signee Justin Edwards according to Kentucky Sports Radio’s Jack Pilgrim.
On WLAP Sunday Morning Sports Talk, Pilgrim insisted the Bradshaw to USC speculation had validity because of the marketing value those close to Bradshaw thought it could mean for him.
Bradshaw posted a picture of himself in a Kentucky uniform on social media Saturday but Pilgrim said that could be a smokescreen and he knew there was interest by some of Bradshaw’s “people” in having him play with Bronny James because of the attention he would get.
Makes you wonder why Bradshaw ever signed with UK if he didn’t think playing for Calpari with freshman teammates DJ Wagner, Edwards, Rob Dillingham and Reed Sheppard was not high profile enough for him. Makes you wonder how reports about Bradshaw’s “people” being concerned about his minutes and shots handcuff Calipari. Makes you wonder that even if Bradshaw stays at Kentucky what might happen if the season does not start out well for him personally.
This just looks like more off-court drama that Kentucky basketball does not need. Not sure what Calipari could do to prevent this since Bradshaw signed with Kentucky in November and has seemed all-in on being part of this No. 1 ranked recruiting class.
But even if Bradshaw stays on board with UK — and most seem to think he will — just knowing his “people” already have doubts about Kentucky is not a good thing.
41 Responses
It’s always "people" influencing these kids.
Exactly right. "Handlers" are destroying college basketball. Scum.
Not a fan of handlers myself
Everyone in the world knew James was going to UCLA or USC. They have made their pitch to Bradshaw for months if not years. Fake News!
Well said.
Don’t care about the people influencing the kids, it is the kids and these people dictating what the UK program must do or not do that bothers me.
This kid is NBA bound whether he comes to UK or goes to USC or anywhere else.
UK will be better served by players who are proud to wear the UK blue and white, and want to leave their mark with #9 hung in the rafters.
Exactly!
Well this is 2023 lol and players dont care abt having their name in college rafters when they are going to the NBA. Sorry its ridiculous and hilarious to even think that.
*some players
If what you say is true, we are recruiting the wrong players. Our first priority is to the program, not to making a couple of multi millionaires per year.
I do not believe the two things are mutually exclusive, but if you are not getting kids who want to win, you are going after the wrong ones.
with you Professor
Bradshaw should have went to Lville where Milt Wagner and Kenny Payne is there . DJ Wagner should have went to Lville too better coaches
Only a Louisville fan would make that statement.
Only a Kentucky fan in denial of exactly who they have running the ship would make that statement. How many years has Kentucky had the top classes in recruiting only to fail in the end. Could it be that the coach is so arrogant that he hasn’t come to the conclusion that he isn’t a X and O kind of guy and he is basically an assistant coach in a head coaches position. If any of the top coaches had as many great teams and players he has had I’m sure they would have come up with more than one championship in the time has has been there….Coach for life…lol…fans surely hope so…lol
Lmao Louisville won less games than I have fingers on one hand last year and you have the jewels to show your face on a fan site of a program with 8 Natty’s😂 you people never cease to amaze me. Cal is a Hall of Famer coach with a Natty and Final Fours under him. Your coaches are glorified big man instructors that got lucky they were tied to Cal enough to even get an interview for a coaching vacancy. We’re not the same🤦🏼♂️
Getting the best players year end year out with one national championship and one ncaa win in last four years gets you inHOF pencil me in. The NBA playoffs are full on KY allstars and one National Championship???? That goodness he had the best player(AD) in the world when Actually Davis won the NCAA not Cal.
What are you doing here on this site? I’m a UK fan but I don’t troll looserville sites. Go home
Yea you do every freaking day…
Lmao… Yes they showed it too.
Better coaches lmao didn’t loserville only win 3 or 4 games last year smh
Blahahaha….ahhhhhh….blahahahaha
Did you watch any U of L games last year? Howmany games did they win? You obviously don’t know much about the game.
Kentucky has a great basketball program any kid would want to be a wildcat everyone needs to stay out of these kids ears they commit to the teams that can take them to a national championship and possibly the nba I’m a real can win lose I love them CATS
With you Janie!
Love your attitude Janie
Your just ignorant!
Love how you’re calling someone ignorant with improper grammar, which you should have learned in second grade. It’s you’re* btw big guy.
Eric Wood and Chris Mack said the great Kenny Payne won all those games — all FOUR! BAHAHAHA!
If I were Calipari I wouldn’t agree to release him from his NIL if he wanted out. Commiting to a school should come with an obligation and to break that contract should also come with consequences.
Because that would solve a lot of problems. The last thing Calipari needs right now is more negativity surrounding his free fall downward trend at UK. 😂
If calipari had coached that Louisville team last year they wouldn’t have won a game! I really would like to see coach Cal with that type of talent
Why, Doherty, would ANYONE want to to stoop to UL’s level?
Bradshaw should stay with uk then he can become the star with being up sage on b James team.
I think more and more we will see two kinds of teams in the NCAA. Teams that are playing to win as a team and teams that have very high level players and an AAU flavor and are playing to show off for NBA scouts while pocketing NIL money at the same time.
I’m thinking teams like the latter have no chance of winning a NC b/c they are not all in on winning. They have a “me first” attitude instead of a “we first”. First thing that goes wrong they will be pouting on the sidelines or on the court.
Unfortunately John Calipari seems to be recruiting a lot of the latter type players in the last 5 years.
It’s a guarantee that Calipari will screw the kid up in a short time!! The kids stock will go down and he will be on a losing team!! That’s why Shadon Sharpe went pro before Calipari had time to kill his stock! Look at BJ Boston the year before, came in as a top 5 pick and after one year under Calipari he was lucky to get drafted! You stupid people need to look what Calipari is doing to these kids!!
Some of our fans just can’t take the bad with the good. Been following cats since late 60’s this not the first time were in a bad stretch and won’t be the last.
It is what Calipari has done to the program that is criminal. And the BBN pays him $9 million a year to do it.
Suck it up Kentucky. What comes around goes around.
Everyone just needs to get a life. Grow up. It’s basketball folks. Not the end of the world.
You want clicks and an article that gets a lot of attention? Simple, write an article about Kentucky and say something that will rile up the angry mob. Of course the article quotes one of KSR”s finest doing what they do best, stir the pot.
But nobody, even at KSR is more ignorant than the dude in the comments saying a coaching staff that won 4 games last season is better than a Hall of Fame coach. Lol. Louisville fans are dumber than a sack of hammers!
Hard to ignore all the national chatter on all this Rimjob
Cal produce NBA players… I’m a UK fan but he’s not a great X&O coach. It’s amazing how many players have average seasons at UK then turn into excellent NBA players