Skal Labissiere falls heavily in NBA Draft

Most draft prognosticators say Jamal Murray will be picked somewhere between third and eighth in Thursday night’s National Basketball Association draft.

As television cameras zoom in for close-ups, he can only watch as his peers step forward. But seeing as Labissiere was never a player that was expected to play right away, his long term fit besides Cousins makes sense with his outside shooting. With the Kitchener, Ontario, native going seventh overall, United Kingdom has had at least one player taken in the top seven in each of the last seven drafts. As for the super-talented Skal Labissiere, he’s a projected lock top-15 pick and Thursday will undoubtedly change his life.

“I know God has a plan for me”, Labissiere said.

Though philosophical, Labissiere acknowledged that it wasn’t easy to sit and wait, and sit and wait.

“Although Alex didn’t get drafted, I’m proud of the position he’s put himself in after what he went through a year-and-a-half ago”, Calipari said.

“It’s a great blessing”. Simmons, the three United Kingdom players and NBA Hall of Famer and LSU alum Shaquille O’Neal.

“I’ve been waiting on this my whole life”, Labissiere said in an interview with ESPN. I’m about to go to work. “So I firmly believe that I have the skill set, and I have the mindset now, and I’m just going to be working”.

Calipari also spoke of the draft as Day One of the future, not a crashing finale. He has had 28 selected in the last seven years as UK’s head coach, including 21 coming in the opening round. “The greatest thing is it doesn’t matter where you got picked, you’re in”.

You could make a good argument for this year’s draft being the worst showing for United Kingdom under Cal, at least in terms of where various Wildcats were projected to go vs how far they fell. Even Calipari found it to be hard waiting for his guys to be selected. “Do you think that’s a good shot?’ and he said, ‘Yeah, I knew it was going in.’ There’s not a shot that he doesn’t think he can make”. “You’re going to be fine”. I think Orlando is a good landing spot for him.

Former Cardinal Chinanu Onuaku has the upside to be a very good National Basketball Association player, he’s predicted to go anywhere from early-to-mid second round.

“As he was about four feet from the floor, he flipped it up with his left hand and the ball went in”, Calipari said with a laugh.

“It was another nerve-wracking night waiting for draft picks to be made”, Calipari said. He spoke of bringing versatility on offense and defense to the Kings. “Whatever it is, I’m ready for it”.