Mark Pope wishes BBN a Happy 4th of July from London
How is Mark Pope spending his first Independence Day as the head coach at Kentucky? By driving around London, of course!
No, not Reed Sheppard’s hometown in the 606 — he’s too busy signing $45.8 million contracts in the NBA. Like, Buckingham Palace and Big Ben with tea London.
Quite ironic considering the holiday celebrates our country’s freedom from Great Britain and the birth of the United States of America. And Pope understands and appreciates the humor in that, wishing Big Blue Nation a Happy Fourth of July from across the pond (and on the wrong side of the road).
“Driving on wrong side of car on wrong side of road in London on Independence Day. All kinds of ironical…and a little scary,” Pope wrote on social media. “AND proof that bitter enemies can become best of friends. Lots of hope in that. Happy 4th of July! God Bless the USA!”
Pope should be used to driving around in new places at this point, previously driving a stick shift in Buenos Aires back in June for the FIBA U18 AmeriCup while recruiting Lexington’s own Jasper Johnson, among other top targets.
“Say a prayer for me…and this poor transmission. It’s been a while,” he joked.
He traded out the 5-speed manual for a newer Volvo with Apple CarPlay, only now he’s driving from the passenger seat on the left side of the road — and his speedometer uses the metric system, London a smooth 19 degrees Celsius.
That’s about 66 degrees Fahrenheit for Americans back home, in case you were curious.
Happy Fourth of July, Big Blue Nation!
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