Devin Booker to a high-profile recruit: "Go to Kentucky. Change your life."

A record-breaking seven Kentucky Wildcats were selected as NBA All-Stars, six participating in the prestigious game to combine for 115 total points. Karl-Anthony Towns led the way with 50, followed by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander with 31, Devin Booker with 15, Tyrese Maxey with 10, Anthony Davis with six and Bam Adebayo with three. Julius Randle was the seventh, but missed the game due to injury.

Elsewhere, Maxey competed in the Skills Challenge and Towns participated in the 3-Point Contest while Jacob Toppin put on a show in the Dunk Contest. Cason Wallace and Oscar Tshiebwe also played in the Rising Stars Challenge while Shaedon Sharpe was selected, but sat out after undergoing abdomen surgery.

13 former Wildcats invited to Indianapolis with a participant in every event. The NBA has never seen anything like it.

For some, that record turned into frustration for the ‘We don’t care about the NBA‘ curmudgeons, not realizing that high-profile recruits deciding where to go to school value a path to the pros above everything. Kentucky players breaking this record will bring more All-Star talents to Kentucky. It’s the circle of basketball life.

‘Yeah, but those guys only brought one national championship to Kentucky.’

And a 226-39 total record including 105-19 in the SEC, five regular season titles, four SEC Tournament titles, 24 NCAA Tournament games, five Elite Eights, four Final Fours and two title games.

“What that group did, please let’s not have revisionist history,” John Calipari said Monday. “… They won more games than anybody in history in that span. They won more games in a season — twice — than any other school in the history of our sport. … These are facts. I’m not defending anything, I don’t need to.”

‘Yeah, but they just use Kentucky as a stepping stool to get to the NBA. They don’t care about us when they’re gone.’

What if I told you those guys recruit on Kentucky’s behalf, both directly and indirectly?

“They continue to help recruiting, all that they’ve done. When you hear what they say — some might not listen to it, because when a player talks about his experience here, they may not want to hear that,” Calipari said. “But when recruits hear it, about the love. I just got a text from two of the parents that, I was walking my dog and I’m about ready to cry when I read it. We are teachers. We are about preparing them for the future. The adversity here, if you want steel, it’s got to go through fire. It’s got to go through the blast furnace. Here, that stuff happens.

“I don’t get it, I really don’t. But that’s fine. All I can tell you is they are so proud that they went here and they represented our fans. Our fans. Not the others that are throwing stuff out there, our fans. That they represented them and what they do going forward.”

How about a real-life example with, say, Devin Booker. Four-time NBA All-Star, All-NBA member, $387 million in signed deals, first exclusive Nike sneaker released this year — the perfect success story for a college player to the pros.

A big-time recruit recently asked Booker about his decision to play for Calipari in Lexington. His answer was the ultimate drop-the-mic moment for anyone questioning this process or what this all means big-picture.

“Devin Booker was asked by a recruit, his father, ‘What about Kentucky?'” Calipari said. “He looked at him and said, ‘Do you want to change your life? Well then go to Kentucky. Change your life. How could that make anybody nasty or mad? I don’t know.”