You just had to be there. March 31, 2009: John Calipari leaves Memphis for Kentucky, officially introduced on April 1. DeMarcus Cousins commits on April 8, joining Billy Gillispie holdovers Daniel Orton and Jon Hood. Darnell Dodson followed on April 24, then Eric Bledsoe on May 5 before Patrick Patterson pulled his name out of […]
You just had to be there.
March 31, 2009: John Calipari leaves Memphis for Kentucky, officially introduced on April 1. DeMarcus Cousins commits on April 8, joining Billy Gillispie holdovers Daniel Orton and Jon Hood. Darnell Dodson followed on April 24, then Eric Bledsoe on May 5 before Patrick Patterson pulled his name out of the draft on May 8.
May 19, 2009: John Wall commits to Kentucky, choosing the Wildcats over Miami, Duke, North Carolina and NC State. It was a landscape-altering move that solidified Coach Cal’s first top-ranked recruiting class in Lexington, the start of college basketball’s polarizing one-and-done era.
October 16, 2009: Calipari’s first Big Blue Madness — and the night Wall becomes college basketball’s biggest rockstar as a viral sensation. He already had the most popular high school mixtape of all time, and now, he had the John Wall Dance.
“A 6-4 freshman from Raleigh, North Carolina, number 11, John Wall.”
Fireworks explode over Dorrough’s “Ice Cream Paint Job” instrumental, the spotlight shines on the program’s newest five-star in the rafters of Rupp as he flexes for the camera, going back and forth to the sound of the ear-piercing cheers. That was ‘aura’ before the phrase became popular, bringing an it factor with him that signaled Kentucky was ready to be the ‘cool’ basketball program again — Wall the face of that resurgence.
He wasn’t a show pony, either, his play living up to that otherworldly hype with the perfect balance of both flash and substance. He hit a game-winner against Miami (OH) in his very first game, then put the Wildcats on his back to open December in back-to-back top-15 wins over No. 10 North Carolina and No. 14 UConn. Leading the team with 16.6 points and 6.5 assists per game, he carried Kentucky to SEC regular season and tournament championships, then the Elite Eight as a No. 1 seed, before closing out as the SEC Player of the Year, a Consensus First Team All-American, National Player of the Year and the program’s first-ever No. 1 overall NBA draft pick.
Wall made it all look easy, setting the standard of individual success overlapping with team success Calipari was looking for when he took over. There was now a path to playing for the names on the front and the back of your Kentucky jersey, a two-way relationship that opened the door to banners and trophies for the school and generational wealth for the players and their families. It was proof winning with superstar freshmen making a quick pitstop before the NBA was possible — and you could still be a diehard fan of theirs at the next level.
He got his own song — Troop 41 telling you how to ball like Wall and do the dance is now up to 16M views on YouTube — entering his rookie year and had kids running around in Reebok ZigTechs as the face of the company. Then he did the same for adidas with multiple signature sneakers, including the aptly named J Wall 1 and J Wall 2, on his way to becoming a five-time NBA All-Star with $267M in career earnings.
A devastating run of injuries ended his time on the floor as a superstar talent, leading to his decision this week to retire from the game at age 34, but man, those highs were something else.
And he did it all repping the blue and white, fighting through tears at his UK Athletics Hall of Fame speech in 2017, the same year he earned All-NBA Third Team honors. That’s when he talked about his mother, Frances Pulley, and the sacrifices she made to get him where he ended up, paying for AAU tournaments instead of light bills on occasion because that’s what it took.
She’d pass away two years later after a hard-fought battle with cancer, his grandmother dying just a year later, too. Those moments, along with the knee and Achilles injuries that took him away from the game he loved most, pushed him to a tragic mental health crisis that nearly took Wall from the world.
“I put a gun to my head twice, and a lot of people that’s close to me and my friends at the time didn’t know,” he heartbreakingly shared in 2024.
His larger-than-life status and impact on the game allowed him to build a platform where people would listen. In that devastating conversation about suicide, he advocated for therapy and others getting help the same way he did — what ultimately kept him alive. He shared that he had so much more to live for, specifically his two sons, showing that even rockstars can be vulnerable.
Life is infinitely bigger than basketball, but he’s pretty good at using that platform to talk hoops, too. In fact, one of the more underrated aspects of Wall’s impact on the UK program actually came after his playing days at Kentucky and in the NBA. When the Coach Cal vs. Big Blue Nation fire ran wild following Calipari’s move to Arkansas and Kentucky’s decision to hire Mark Pope, he poured cold water on the flames rather than gasoline.
The most popular voice of that era chose not to pick sides in the breakup and instead bridged the gap, saying he’ll always support his former coach “no matter what school he’s at,” but Lexington is “always home.”
“It’s sad to see a breakup like that happen, but I think it was time,” Wall said of Calipari. “… Sometimes you need a new fresh start, even though you might want to be with that person and stay with that person. I think he needed a fresh start and he’s doing what’s best for him and his family.”
“I’m still part of Kentucky. I’m still going to be Big Blue Nation,” he added of the Wildcats. “They gave me the opportunity to play on the highest level you can in college basketball in D1, one of the biggest schools ever, and then get an opportunity to go to the NBA. That’s always family. I have the jersey tatted on me. I’m in the Hall of Fame. It’s always love and support for Kentucky, and that’s never going to change.”
When people experience change with emotions pulling them in a million different directions, considering the memories and current circumstances, sometimes they want to be told how to feel. Sometimes they say things in the heat of the moment, considering loyalty over reality — remember DeMarcus Cousins telling Rajon Rondo, “Everything Calipari brings to a program is going to go down if they replace this guy”?
Rondo, obviously, took up for his alma mater and the rich history he was a part of years before Coach Cal’s arrival.
“Don’t disrespect the University of Kentucky,” he said. “It’s been one of the greatest colleges of all time way before Cal got there. He didn’t just come there and accept the standard that it’s winning basketball now.”
Can you blame either side for their passionate beliefs? Obviously not. You’ll never convince me Cousins doesn’t bleed blue just because he wanted to defend his coach. He’s said as much, sharing later, “(Kentucky) is always gonna have a place in my heart. I mean, they helped me — it wouldn’t be no Boogie without that place. It wouldn’t even exist.”
But that’s what makes it so easy to appreciate Wall for making an awkward time for all of us feel normal — and doing it as it was all unfolding, not after the fact. For him, it was never about pointing fingers or being on the right side of history, whatever you thought that was. It was about respect, going out of his way to introduce himself to Pope at a recruiting event right after the coaching change to show support, then sitting down with Calipari to catch up minutes later, like all players with their former coaches.
All love.
It’s fitting, in a way, that the very first rockstar to begin the Coach Cal era ended up being the voice of reason to end it, doing his part to help pave what could have been a bumpy road for Pope in his first spring at Kentucky. That’s continued in the year since, regularly talking about his love for the Wildcats on podcasts and radio shows. Just last month, he shared that he’s “always reppin'” his former school, wearing UK apparel in photos and posting new gear from Pope.
“Kentucky’s always home for me,” he said. “There’s always love.”
That’s just who John Wall is and what he’s always been, starting back when he became a Wildcat on May 19, 2009 until the ball stopped dribbling for him on August 19, 2025 — and everything this point forward. Big Blue Nation is certainly proud to have been a part of that journey.
Like his jersey number in Lexington, No. 11 is one of one.
Category: General Sports
