Hamidou Diallo chose Kentucky blue over NBA bucks, withdrawing from the 2017 NBA Draft and deciding to provide UK fans what many feared they’d never get to see.
Wednesday was decision day for early entrants to withdraw from the draft or lose their college eligibility. Diallo, a five-star recruit who joined the UK team in January, practiced but never played throughout the remainder of the 2016-17 season. He announced April 23 he wanted to “test the waters” by entering the draft without hiring an agent and met Wednesday’s deadline by deciding he was not quite ready to raft the professional current.