Delk played his collegiate ball at the University of Kentucky from 1992 to 1996, where he won SEC Player of the Year, Final Four Most Outstanding Player, and won an NCAA national championship his final season with the team. His pro career began after being taken 16th in the 1996 NBA Draft by the Charlotte Hornets. He was then traded by the Hornets along with Muggsy Bogues to the Golden State Warriors for B. J. Armstrong in November, 1997, where he played for two years before signing with the Sacramento Kings as a free agent in the summer of 1999.