John Wall Says This Tyler Hansbrough Encounter Led Him To Choose Kentucky Over UNC

On Tuesday, as reported by Sports Illustrated, Wall was a recent guest on former UNC player Theo Pinson‘s podcast, Run Your Race, where he shared a story about an unforgettable moment during his college recruitment process. In the interview, he admitted UNC was the only school that could’ve stopped him from being a Wildcat.

“I wanted to go to Carolina, that’s my dream school. I’ll tell you the story about that, a lot of people don’t know that. They f**ked it up,” Wall said. “They was the only one that could have gotten me not to go play for Coach Cal.”

This story on why John Wall chose Kentucky over his “dream school” UNC is wild 🤯

Via @tpinsonn pic.twitter.com/kzxP0D2Cab

— Prep Hoops 🏀 (@PrepHoops) January 17, 2023

Wall, a native of Raleigh, North Carolina, mentioned that while he was in the decision-making process, his mom, his “best friend,” had an aneurysm, so he wanted to be near her. He was not a fan of North Carolina State because it was too close to home; UNC would’ve been the ideal situation for him to have some distance from his hometown without being out of state since he wanted to be safe.

“I can’t go to school from here to the motherf**king refrigerator. I ain’t never going to be on campus, I’m going to be at home with my guys,” the 32-year-old said.

“So I go on the visit, Ty Lawson and them are there. Tyler Hansbrough’s got his own section … I’m the recruit, I walk up and say, ‘What’s up.’ He said, ‘I don’t talk to recruits.’ I was like, ‘F**k you, I ain’t coming here.’ That f**ked it up right there.”

Hansbrough was a senior with an impressive collegiate athletic career. He led the Tar Heels to the national championship in his final year playing at Chapel Hill and played for the NBA for seven years.
When he caught wind of Wall’s story, he hopped on Twitter to deny the claims and suggest it was due to financial reasons.

The story @JohnWall told on @tpinsonn podcast DID NOT HAPPEN! 100% FALSE! I’m sure the bank of Calipari had nothing to do with him going to Kentucky

— Tyler Hansbrough (@THANS50) January 18, 2023

Despite not attending UNC, things worked out in Wall’s favor. Following a remarkable freshman season at Kentucky under coach John Calipari, he became the NBA’s No. 1 draft pick in 2010. The Los Angeles Clippers player has since played 13 seasons in the NBA.