Every kid who loves basketball needs only three things… a ball, a basket, and an imagination. I've been there, and surely many of you who are reading along have too. And so has Kentucky Wildcats freshman guard Reed Sheppard, who is one of the lucky few who managed to turn his childhood imagination into a reality.
“I’ve always been a little boy from Kentucky who wanted to play at Kentucky,” Sheppard says, per Kyle Tucker of The Athletic. “It feels like that was me just two days ago, out in the yard with my friends and my cousins, taking that last shot for Kentucky.”
In reality, however, it was just two days ago that Sheppard was on a court in Starkville, Mississippi, playing alongside his Wildcats teammates, taking (and making) the last shot for Kentucky.
REED SHEPPARD WINS IT FOR KENTUCKY 🚨 @KentuckyMBB pic.twitter.com/1pevWzZwfu
— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) February 28, 2024
To say that Reed Sheppard was born for this moment would certainly sound like a tired cliche, but I must admit, it checks out. Reed's father, Jeff Sheppard, was the Most Outstanding Player at the 1998 Final Four for Kentucky. His mother, Stacey Reed Sheppard, remains ranked in the top ten in scoring for the Kentucky women's basketball program. So when Reed says something like “I’ve always been a little boy from Kentucky who wanted to play at Kentucky,” it's not just the convenient origin story of a kid who would go on to become a college basketball folk hero. It feels more like something that the college basketball gods have actually manifested.
“I didn’t come to Kentucky to do NIL,” Reed says. “The whole goal was to come play basketball, get better, win a national championship.”
Now that we're just hours away from the beginning of the month of March, this raises a series of important and relevant questions: What happens if Kentucky doesn't win a national championship this year? Will Reed bolt Lexington with the NBA waiting? Or does it make sense, financial and otherwise, for Reed Sheppard to remain in Lexington for the time being?
“I don’t think he’ll stay or go based on NIL, but to say it’s a non-factor is not accurate,” Reed's father Jeff shared. “It’s not like we sit down at the dinner table every night breaking down draft classes over the next four years trying to figure out when to go — we don’t talk like that — but we’ll make a thoughtful decision when it’s time.”
Again, check the calendar and you'll see March is near, and that means the time to make a thoughtful decision is fast approaching. And Jeff Sheppard's former Kentucky teammate, Scott Padgett, who is now an assistant for Mississippi State, believes he has a read on the situation.
“I’m not saying he’ll stay four years, but I would still be shocked if his career lasted one,” Padgett says. He continued, saying, “I don’t know that there’s a real rush to get out of there unless you’re 100 percent ready. Plus, if he comes back, he’s a rock star. He’s Michael Jordan and Muhammad Ali. In that state, he would be that.”
Reaching the heights of Michael Jordan and Muhammad Ali may seem like a bit of a stretch, even if we're evaluating Reed Sheppard's long-lasting impact only in the Bluegrass State, but don't underestimate the cult following a rockstar collegiate athlete can accumulate if he crafts enough memories for those who love that particular school or have spent time on that particular campus.
Now that Reed Sheppard has had the opportunity to suit up for the Kentucky Wildcats just like his father Jeff Sheppard did for four seasons, has that itch been scratched? Is the NBA the next step in his basketball journey? Or deep down, does fulfilling the dreams of the little boy from Kentucky who wanted to play at AND win a championship at Kentucky mean even more than that?
Follow Us
Subscribe