Reece Potter's favorite former Kentucky player isn't someone you'd expect

Born and raised a Kentucky basketball fan, Reece Potter has plenty of memories from his younger days cheering on the Wildcats.

Potter remembers how dominant DeMarcus Cousins was during the big man’s lone season in Lexington, he remembers breaking out the John Wall dance with his friends, he remembers all those clutch Aaron Harrison shots in the 2014 NCAA Tournament. Potter recalls being in Florida on spring break during that postseason run to the national championship game over a decade ago. He was at a restaurant with the only group of people losing their minds as Harrison dropped in yet another game-winning shot.

“Everybody’s like, ‘Who are these nuts back here screaming for Kentucky?'” Potter jokingly told reporters on Monday as he reminisced on his favorite UK memories.

But there’s one former Wildcat who sticks out in Potter’s mind as his personal favorite.

“I feel like I have to say Daniel Orton,” Potter said. “Because he trained me for so long.”

Before beginning his college career at Miami (OH) for two seasons, which later led to him transferring to Kentucky back in the offseason, Potter was a star player at Lexington Catholic High School. Suiting up for one of the more well-known schools in the entire state, there was a bit of a target on his back at the time. Granted, being seven feet tall made that somewhat unavoidable, but Potter wanted to make sure he was up to the task.

Enter Daniel Orton, who has become a more prominent fixture around the city of Lexington since his professional basketball career came to an end a few years ago. The 6-foot-10 Orton was teammates with Wall and Cousins on the 2009-10 Wildcats, John Calipari‘s first team as head coach. He now lives in central Kentucky.

“I’ve known him probably since like my freshman year of high school,” Potter said of Orton. “So he moved from Oklahoma here after his playing days. So me and him used to go at each other during practice. Every single morning we used to work out. So I was able to learn from him and grow from him, and we have a great relationship. I still talk to him every single day, so he always calls me just to tell me to hop on the game or stuff like that. So it’s been great, growing into a great friendship, for sure.”

Orton, now 34 years old, is a good confidant, both on and off the court, for someone like Potter to have. A former first-round NBA Draft pick after his one season at Kentucky, Orton played basketball all over the world for more than a decade. He’s been in the NBA, he’s been overseas, and he’s even been on La Familia, Kentucky’s alumni team in The Basketball Tournament that made it to the semifinals last summer.

Now, he’s helping with the new era of Kentucky basketball.

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