Full-time Kentucky basketball coach, part-time podcast host. That's the title John Calipari rolls with these days.
Earlier this week, Calipari hosted a prominent name on his "Cal Cast" podcast -- award-winning rapper Drake, who has been a Kentucky Wildcats supporter since notably launching the airball heard around the world. The two sat down to discuss the rapper's emergence, how he got into acting, and most importantly: Where he would go to college if he had the talents to play at the collegiate level. It drew an interesting and, for those who know Drake, fairly unsurprising response.
Calipari: If you were a high school player, where would you be going to play college basketball?
Drake: That can't be a serious question coming from you?
Calipari: If you were one and done!
Drake: I'll tell you this. The Kentucky basketball program honestly is something else -- I mean you know this. I don't know how many people know this. I try and say this as much as I can because I say this from the bottom of my heart. You're one of the most iconic mentors in my life period. And I don't even know if I've ever really got a chance to fully tell you why. But coming to Lexington and seeing the basketball program. Seeing the way not only your team, not only your staff, but just an entire culture, an entire city looks at you as this figure they can always find solitude in. It really was inspiring to me. It just reminded me why that's so important. I was just so inspired to come there and see all these people that sort of are funneling through this system. All these kids. It's up to you to give them something -- motivation, inspiration, tools, knowledge they can take with them on their journey because a lot of them have different journeys. ... When I came to Lexington, and I met you, I didn't want to leave. I would have traded my life at that moment to play Kentucky basketball and be under you. It felt like a mentor. It felt like a father figure. It felt like this incredible feeling and at 26 years old, it made me go and reconnect with the teacher that I loved the most.
Drake said he was motivated to graduate high school "in honor of what he saw at Lexington" under Calipari along with a desire to fulfill his mothers wishes -- a retired teacher. When Drake completed his high school credits, Calipari even attended the graduation ceremony.
But he didn't answer the question: Would Drake attend Kentucky as a high school recruit?
"There's no doubt in my mind. I wouldn't have to do some big spectacle [ceremony] with choices of different caps on the table. I would just go straight to Kentucky," Drake said. "I'd have to play under you. That would be one of the greatest things that could ever happen in my life."
"My goal [in graduating high school]," said Drake, "was to be able to say that I was eligible for some form of acceptance to Kentucky. That was my goal."
So there you have it. Six-foot, unranked guard Drake has committed to play for Kentucky. Looks like Brad Calipari might have some competition.
You can listen to the entire podcast in the soundcloud link below.
