Reed Sheppard and his mother, Stacey, hugged after he was drafted Wednesday night.
What a night for Stacey Sheppard … and her family.
Her son, Reed, was picked No. 3 in the NBA Draft by the Houston Rockets after an amazing freshman season at Kentucky. However, not long before the pick, Reed Sheppard and other family members were singing “Happy Birthday” to his mom, Stacey, in the green room waiting for the draft to start. (Reed had turned 20 on Monday in Brooklyn himself.)
And since the Sheppards had 75 family members/friends in Brooklyn with them, you know the happy times were just starting for the former Kentucky Mr. Basketball and his family.
Sheppard, a McDonald’s All-American, became UK’s highest draft pick since Karl Anthony-Towns went No. 1 in 2015 and the first top five pick since De’Aaron Fox in 2017. No Kentucky native who played for UK had been drafted in the top 10 since Rex Chapman went No. 8 overall to the Charlotte Hornets in 1988.
Almost every college basketball or NBA Draft analyst agreed that Sheppard — a 52 percent 3-point shooter at UK last year — was the best shooter in the draft. No first-round draft pick has hit 52 percent from 3 in college since Michigan’s Glen Rice in 1989.
ESPN analyst Jay Bilas said while Sheppard is a knockdown 3-point shooter, he can also score in other ways and is an efficient defender even though he’s not a lockdown defender.
Sheppard joked he had “no more nerves” when interviewed on ABC-TV after being picked third. He said the Rockets were getting “just a guy going in looking to learn and do what it takes to win. Whatever it takes to win and be on the court, I am going to do it.”
Stacey, a former UK guard as well as a state high school champion at Laurel County, said the family was “blessed” while Jeff Sheppard, Reed’s father and a two-time national champion at UK, was “thankful” for what happened.
“Overwhelmed with appreciation. So proud of Reed. God has been good to our family,” Jeff said on ABC-TV.
ABC-TV analysts Bob Myers and Stephen A. Smith agreed it was 6-5 or 6-6 instead of 6-2 that he would have been the No. 1 overall pick.
“The only issue with Reed is his size. He’s a shorter shooting guard,” Myers, a former general manager for the Golden State Warriors, said. “He was one of the top analytics guys on the (draft) board not just for his high percentage shooting but for his blocks and steals.”
Smith has no doubts about Sheppard’s future success.
“He has proven you don’t need it (size) to be successful on the elite level,” the sometimes controversial ABC/ESPN analyst said. “I love this kid. He is a gamer. When you can shoot like this a great coach will find a way to utilize this kid.”
Sheppard was the consensus national freshman of the year after averaging 12.5 points, 4.1 rebounds, 4.5 assists, and 2.5 steals in 28.9 minutes per game while shooting 53.6 percent from the floor, 52.1 percent from 3 and 83 percent from the foul line.
Sheppard ranks in the top 10 all-time among UK freshmen in five statistical categories. He is first in 3-point field goal percentage (52.1), second in steals (82), fifth in made 3’s (75), eighth in assists (148), and ninth in free throw percentage (83.1).
Want more? He was the first player in school history with three games at least 25 points, five rebounds and five assists in a single-season.
6 Responses
Sheppard is the first college player picked in the draft. If he had been on any other team, he would have started every game, by virtue of what he accomplished coming off the bench. If he had started every game for Kentucky he would have averaged 20+ points, 10+ assists, 8 rebounds, and 4 steals a game. We most likely would have had 4 to 5 fewer losses, might have won the SEC regular season title, and most definitely would have advanced further in both the SEC and NCAA tourneys. Of course, this did not happen since Calipari started his pets and gave them more playing time than they deserved. Many of the games Reed did play in seemed like he was wearing handcuffs where publicly Calipari would tell him to go out there and dominate, but privately would say don’t show up my pets. I thank God every day that the FRAUD is gone!
I can’t imagine going through another season with him.
Really happy for Sheppard. It’s great to see a Kentucky kids NBA dream come true and hit the jackpot at the same time.
Congrats to Reed. The rockets are always a 50/50 team. Maybe he can tilt that in the right direction. I don’t watch the NBA it’s very boring to me. But I’m happy he went 3rd. I still wish he would have came back and corrected what happened in the NCAA tournament but now he can try to win a NBA championship maybe one day. To me I couldn’t go out like that. Let’s just say he came back on this team and we won the national championship!!! Do you think it would have hurt his draft stock? Because I don’t think so. Just being a Kentucky kid on a team that was mediocre I thought he would at least want to play in a final 4. But money is the root of all evil. People say well he could have came back and gotten hurt. He still would have played in the NBA and made millions of dollars. Usually on one and dones I understand the situation. Mom lives in a small apartment and dad wasn’t around but Reed comes from a silver spoon. I guarantee in 5-10 years he says he wished he came back to Kentucky for at least another year. Even the John Walls who were NBA All stars say this and they didn’t grow up in Rupp Arena.
The love of money is the root of all evil.
1Timothy 6:10
This is true UKfan, but Reed can use this wealth to help those in need. There is nothing wrong with having a lot of money, the problem is when you use it for selfish indulgence.