Kentucky’s John Calipari is one of several coaches who advised 2017 point guard Trae Young to transfer for his senior season of high school basketball.
Young, who ranks No. 28 overall on the Rivals.com list for 2017, and his father had this to say to The Norman Transcript:
Young’s father, Rayford, said it’s not a guarantee that his son will transfer for his senior year. The family discussed him leaving North prior to the 2014-15 season but chose to stay in Norman.
“We feel he owes it to Norman and Norman North that they should at least win a state championship, and they’ve got a great chance this year,” Rayford Young said. “We’ll see. It’s not a guarantee.”
Young mentioned that some of the college recruiters, including Kentucky coach John Calipari, feel that his son should leave North to face better competition. Some schools, like UCLA, feel he shouldn’t.
“I have a good chance to be a McDonalds All-American, and it will also help me be ready to lead a team as a freshman in college,” Young said via text. “No matter if I go to OU, OSU, Duke or Kentucky, wherever I end up, I just want to be prepared. And no disrespect to Oklahoma or the schools, but I don’t think that the competition will prepare me for what I play against in the summer or at the next level.”
I think it’s safe to say that Transcript sports editor Clay Horning is not happy that Young is considering a transfer.
Check out his comments which seem to primarily focus on Calipari:
Gee, isn’t Trae Young lucky to have a swell guy like John Calipari looking out for him, selflessly asserting what a great idea it would be if Young left Norman North to play at Findlay Prep in Las Vegas or Montverde Christian Academy near Orlando?
It probably has nothing to do with the collateral possibility that should Young get himself to Nevada or Florida, he’d be far more likely to sign with Kentucky rather that a school like, oh, say, Oklahoma or Oklahoma State.
Isn’t it nice to know that the king of one-and-done at the collegiate level seeks to be the impetus behind a prep kid going three-and-done at his hometown high school.Ah, consistency.
Isn’t it nice to know that in an age of college athletics as a billion-dollar business, Calipari and his pin-striped suit are unaffected by all of it, that for all of his kiss-the-ring self-importance in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, all the Wildcat coach really wants to do is give a rising high school junior some sound advice; never mind that advice would have him moving cross country for all of a single school year, away from his family (which doesn’t seem all the wild about the idea), away from his friends, away from everything in the name of, as Young himself told Transcript sports writer John McKelvey on Wednesday, having “a good chance to be a McDonald’s All-American” and being in a better position “to lead a team as a freshman in college.”
If any of this isn’t making sense, first read the story next to this one, the one that explains how Young announced Wednesday he’ll probably spend his junior year at Norman North before bolting for harder hardwood pastures.
Also, when you read it, understand that you’re witnessing the slimy underbelly of big-time, big-prospect, high school-slash-college basketball.
