Kentucky basketball is synonymous with college basketball royalty. In UK’s storied history, the program has produced 60 first-round NBA Draft picks. Thirty-seven of those selections occurred during the John Calipari era, which spanned from 2009 to last spring. Twenty-five of the 37 first-rounders Calipari produced were lottery picks.
But there was still something missing despite what Kentucky’s program has accomplished as one of the blue bloods of the sport. Kentucky had never produced an NBA MVP winner — until this week. On Wednesday night, Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander earned the NBA’s top individual honor, edging out Denver’s Nikola Jokić and Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo in the voting.
The closest any player had previously come to winning MVP during the Calipari era at Kentucky was Anthony Davis, who finished third behind LeBron James and James Harden during the 2016-17 season. Davis finished in the top five of MVP voting twice, but hasn’t finished higher than third in the voting since.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander named MVP: Thunder star put up one of best guard seasons in NBA history
Sam Quinn
Davis’ overall body of work as an NBA player is impressive. He was named to the 75th Anniversary Team in 2021, helped the Los Angeles Lakers win the title in 2020 and has finished in the top five of Defensive Player of the Year voting four times. Davis, who helped Kentucky win a national title as a freshman, is also regarded as the best one-and-done players of the modern college basketball era, a crown Duke’s Cooper Flagg — the projected No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft — wasn’t able to take away from him after coming up short in last month’s Final Four.
…
..
