For 15 seasons, John Calipari served as the head coach of the Kentucky Wildcats in Lexington. And we all know how legendary that journey has been for Coach Cal. However, another story was taking shape in parallels, that of his son, Brad Calipari. Putting things in perspective, when Coach Cal would be at his games at Rupp Arena, just a few miles away back home, Brad would stand in front of the hoop to try to get that perfect shot. For Brad, people only saw the name on the back of his jersey rather than seeing the hard work he put into the game.

Giving a little background of his life, Brad is a Franklin Lakes, New Jersey native who majored in communication. Although he defines a true hero as a servant leader, the most influential figure in his life has been his father. Maybe that’s why he chose Kentucky over UMass to go forth with his collegiate career. But still, at one point, he too needed to get out of that shell to truly tap into his real potential. “the more I wanted to elevate my game, the more I knew I needed to leave Lexington,” he said.

Brad Calipari and his early life in high school

Having his home in Lexington, junior Calipari embarked on his high school basketball journey at Lexington Christian Academy. After playing for two seasons, Brad took his talents to MacDuffie School in Massachusetts.

There, he emerged as a sharpshooter who made a team-high 47% from beyond the arc while averaging 15.3 points, 3.6 assists, and 2.6 rebounds per game in his final year. He concluded his varsity basketball career as a 1000-point scorer who was also named MVP of the 2016 Hoop Hall Classic.

Besides this, he was also selected for the 2016 Kentucky Derby Festival Basketball Classic. In the tournament, he posted 9 points off three 3-pointers along with 4 boards. The other time he scored 17 points off of 5 3-pointers and led his team to a 69-61 win over Wilbraham and Monson Academy, Massachusetts.

However, basketball isn’t the only sport that Calipari played in high school. Turns out he also enjoyed playing golf while he earned academic honors for art, specializing in drawing. The 6-foot guard then moved on to start his collegiate journey at Kentucky.

Dreams left unfulfilled

“I want to think about it all season, with each game, with each win: national championship.” That’s the thought Brad Calipari entered Kentucky with. Having experienced the Big Blue energy growing up, he wanted to bring back the energy last felt in 2012. But fate wasn’t to be on his side.

In his freshman season with the Wildcats, Calipari played 15 games and started none, tallying 8 points, 3 rebounds, and 2 shots from beyond the arc. Within 5 minutes against Texas A&M, he grabbed one rebound while he registered 3 minutes against Valparaiso and made a 3-point shot. However, the first three-pointer of his collegiate career was against Arizona State along with a rebound and an assist. He posted a career-high 8 minutes against Cleveland State.

Meanwhile, he also had the opportunity to participate in a four-game action during an international basketball trip with Global Sports Academy in Croatia. During the tournament, Calipari averaged 14.3 points, 6.5 assists, and 3.3 rebounds per game. The next season/ sophomore year, it was another international basketball trip with Global Sports Academy in Europe for Calipari junior. Through those 4 games in the tournament, he averaged 13.2 points and 7 assists.

But his college run wasn’t proving any good. He’s once again record limited minutes on the court, total three points and start none in his sophomore year. He’s redshirt the 2018-19 season following his four-game performance against Bahamas national team. The three-year graduate transfer was then named the 2018-19 Winter SEC Academic Honor Roll member, who also had two years of eligibility left to play in college. Detroit Mercy would be his next destination.

Growing alongside the Titans

The redshirted transfer came to Detroit Mercy and saw action in 27 games including six starts. That season, he averaged 6.1 points and 1.1 rebounds per game. Moreover, he improved to 38% shooting from beyond the arc and 70.8% from the free throw line (17-of-24 shots made). He also made 51 of his 134 shots from the field.

Calipari scored in double digits around six times through the season while connecting a minimum of 2 three-point shots through 14 games. Thereafter, in the 2020-21 season, he played only six games with no starts. It was then time for him to embark on a new journey.

From student-athlete to graduate assistant, Calipari took the leap

After exhausting his 2-year eligibility, Calipari went back to Lexington, however, to be on the other side of things. He was back to his hometown, back to the big blue nation, but as an assistant graduate for the Wildcats in 2021. He served in the position for a year and then earned a master’s certificate in sports kinesiology.

In 2022, Calipari became the director of player development for Long Island University in Brooklyn. There, he worked shoulder-to-shoulder with the head coach Rod Strickland. The next year, he moved on to a similar role— that of the director of on-court player development at Vanderbilt, where he helped players like Erza Manjon and Tyrin Lawrence to become some of the top scorers in the SEC.

Following those two years, Calipari was then named the assistant coach/ director of on-court player development at Fayetteville for the Arkansas Razorbacks. After all those years, he’d once again meet his father on the court. “And the first person I want to see after we win is my dad,” he had said, wishing for a championship in Kentucky under John Calipari. The two are on the same team again. Though in a different setting, the dream to transpire, we hope for.