Ever since John Calipari arrived in Lexington in April of 2009, he has been the subject of brutal attacks by the various media which have bordered on character assassination. As we have learned recently, these reports do not even have to be true or linked to a credible source for major newspapers to print them and let the slander fly where it may. That aside, it’s refreshing to find stories that actually look at the situations and debunk all these myths that surround John Calipari.
Jason Jordan (no relation) recently took a look at the myth of World Wide Wes and the perception that he is funneling all these top ranked recruits to Kentucky and John Calipari. Turns out that the myth does not always equal reality. Here is what a few top recruits had to say about Mr. WWW.
So there you have it. It seems that WWW is kind of like the Easter Bunny or the Boogieman or what other stories parents tell their kids to get them to modify their family. I personally think that WWW is too much involved with being a “power broker” in the NBA to do John Calipari’s bidding. But I am sure the legend of WWW will persist. I think that Austsin Rivers had the best comment though about what drives people to Kentucky:
"Anthony Wroten: “I make my own decisions. I don’t know Wesley at all. Never met him. Never talked to him. All I know is that he’s supposed to, like, send people to Kentucky or have ties there or something. Could he tell me where to go? Well, anyone can tell me whatever they want, but at the end of the day I’m gonna go where I want to go. He may have some pull, but not enough to tell me where to go.”Austin Rivers: “He’s a good guy and all, but I’m gonna sit down with the people I know the best and decide. I don’t know him that well to have him in on my decision. Guys like Michael Gilchrist have known him forever, so people make connections based off that, and I don’t know if that’s true or not. I just know that at this point, as cool a guy as he is, he couldn’t have an impact on my decision.”Marquis Teague: said that he’d “never even heard of Worldwide Wes” until after he’d already committed to Kentucky. “So he definitely had no influence on my decision. I still don’t know him. He’s supposed to be this real powerful guy. I sat down with my Dad and decided. I wasn’t gonna let anyone influence me and definitely not anyone I don’t know. I made my own decision and I went because that’s where I wanted to go.”Shawn Teague (Marquis’s dad): “He just said hi. And I was thinking, ‘So this is the guy everyone’s talking about?’ I think the kids that don’t have fathers around are more likely to be enticed by a situation like that. Do I think all his power and influence is a myth? I don’t know, this man’s name is always out there and always popping up so I think there is some degree of truth in what he’s capable of. But I don’t think he just points to Kentucky and kids go running.”"
"“The person who has an influence over me, as it pertains to Kentucky, is John Calipari. Not anyone he’s associated with. And though a lot of high school guys think otherwise, that’s the case for most players.”"
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