UK’s Immanuel Quickley, reigning SEC Player of the Year, headed to Knicks
Former University of Kentucky guard Immanuel Quickley was chosen by the Oklahoma City Thunder with the 25th pick in the NBA Draft on Wednesday night. UK Coach John Calipari soon after confirmed to ESPN that Quickley will be traded to the New York Knicks.
He was the second ex-Wildcat off the board, following Tyrese Maxey (21st to the Philadelphia 76ers).
“It’s a little bit of a surprise that he’s going this high, but he’s going this high because he can shoot it,” ESPN analyst Jay Bilas said.
Maxey will join former Kentucky stars Julius Randle and Kevin Knox on the Knicks’ roster. Also, former UK assistant Kenny Payne joined the team’s coaching staff in August.
Calipari joined the ESPN broadcast for a moment after Quickley was selected.
“They’re getting a worker, a great kid, a terrific basketball player, helps build culture,” Calipari said. “… It’s been a good night. There’s some guys that passed on Tyrese that are gonna regret it.”
Later, Calipari praised Quickley in a short video posted to Twitter.
“(Quickley) didn’t start the first five or six games because I was trying to get a three-guard rotation, and you know what? I was out of my mind,” Calipari said. “Put him in the rotation and said, “No, no. You’re a starter.’ And what did we do? We win the league by three games and he is player of the year in our league.”
Quickley was named the SEC Player of the Year this past season after leading the Cats in scoring at 16.1 points per game. He also averaged 4.2 rebounds and 1.9 assists while shooting 42.8 percent from three-point range.
“Immanuel was an absolute pleasure to coach over the last two years,” Calipari said when Quickley announced he was declaring for the draft. “I had as much fun coaching him and watching him grow than just about any player I’ve ever coached. … he absolutely works his tail off. He takes his conditioning seriously, has unbelievable discipline, unwavering faith, confidence and spent just about all of his extra time in that gym.
“His reward: SEC Player of the Year, as voted on by the coaches. I’ve been in this league for 11 years and only had that happen three other times. Think about that with some of the kids we’ve had go through here.”
This story was originally published November 18, 2020 at 10:34 PM.