The Most Impactful Kentucky Wildcat Basketball Players (1981-82 to present): #8 Kenny Walker

By this time, Walker was the one of the premier players in college basketball and had earned the moniker “Sky Walker” for his dazzling dunks. Walker averaged 20.3 points and 7.7 rebounds a game. Walker had more help on Eddie Sutton’s first team as UK went 32-4 and came just three points from Walkers second trip to the Final Four. UK won the SEC and the SEC Tournament but could not beat LSU for the fourth time. Walker repeated as the SEC Player of the year and was a unanimous All American. To be honest, you can debate that Walker’s back to back seasons were the most dominating in the past 30 years.

As you would expect, Walker’s name is all over the UK record books. He finished number two all time in scoring with 2080 points, #6 with 942 rebounds, #15 with 122 blocks, and #12 with a career FG percentage of 57.13%. Walker is also 2nd in career NCAA points scored with 225. Walker was drafted #5 in the NBA draft by the New York Knicks. In one of the weirdest publicity stunts ever, Walker defeated Pugwash, a harness racing horse in what equated to a 100 yard dash. It should be noted that Pugwash was 0-21 in his career and was carrying a sulky and driver. Still, Walker won.

Walker’s pro career never really took off, but he did also play for five different coaches in five seasons with the Knicks. Walker averaged over 10 point a game his first couple of seasons in the NBA and his popularity soared when he won the 1989 Slam Dunk contest. Unfortunately, knee problems caught up with Walker and forced him out of the league after five seasons. He played in Spain and returned to the NBA for a two year stint with Washington starting in 1993. After that, Walker played a season in Japan in 1998 before finally hanging it up. Walker is back in Lexington and works on the UK post game show.

To be honest, I personally would have Walker about four spots higher, but this was a democratic process.  It’s hard to describe the hype around Walker more than 20 years ago.  I may be wrong, but I think Walker was the first Wildcat to have his own shoe named after him.  But expect more talk of Walker in the upcoming season.  While Walker did not sport the high top fade while at UK, but he did sport it in the 1989 Slam Dunk Contest.  So it proves everything old is new again …. time will tell if Nerlens Noel is as impactful as Walker.