Kellan Grady "never" thought he'd be able to play for John Calipari

Kellan Grady came out of high school as a four-star recruit and one of the premier guard prospects in the country from the class of 2017.

He held offers from nearly every big-name non-Power 5 program around — Richmond, Xavier, Creighton, etc. He ultimately followed in the footsteps of Steph Curry and landed at Davidson, where he would go on to have an all-time great career with the school. Grady poured in over 2,000 points during his four years at Davidson, never finished a season scoring under 17 points per game, and made three All-Atlantic 10 Conference Teams.

Not once during his incredible college career, or even as a young child growing up in Boston, had he even considered the idea of playing for a school such as Kentucky under a Hall of Fame head coach such as John Calipari. But soon after he played his final game with Davidson, Cal came calling.

Suddenly, the thought of suiting up for a major Blue Blood became real for the first time ever. Grady and his family always had a ton of respect for Calipari. It was an opportunity he couldn’t pass up.

“We had a great relationship. I’ve always had a lot of respect for (Calipari),” Grady said during Thursday’s showing of KSR. “My dad admired him, had a lot of respect for him being from Massachusetts and seeing what he did at UMass. We’ve always appreciated Coach Cal and never frankly thought in reality that I would play for him, ever. Like I don’t think that was even a discussion once at the dinner table or on a car ride home from an AAU game.”

During his lone season at Kentucky, which Grady admitted was marred by a season-long foot injury, he never once stopped competing. He finished with an average of 11.4 points per game on 44.6 overall shooting, including a career-high 41.5 percent clip from distance. When Kentucky lost both of its starting point guards during the season — Sahvir Wheeler and TyTy Washington — it was Grady who was relied upon to command the backcourt. That extra minutes load would ultimately play a role in exaggerating his injury, but not once during the season did he make excuses.

Grady wasn’t the traditional one-and-done that has come through Kentucky under Calipari, but he made a similar impact, just with a more, well, elderly feel to it.

“I think he kinda trusted that he could treat me as a granddad, as a guy that has had experience and will listen and do what he’s told,” Grady said of Calipari. “At the end of the year meeting he said that he appreciated me and that I got his jokes.”