Canadian Shaedon Sharpe’s NBA moment will come, when the time is right

Years before Shaedon Sharpe went from an unknown to one of the most talked-about NBA draft prospects, he was cut from Team Ontario at the age of 15.

His father, Robert, remembers that life-shaping day as if it were yesterday. They had just left tryouts at the University of Toronto and were walking together after getting the crushing news. Shaedon turned to his dad and said: “I can’t believe I got cut.”

Robert’s heart dropped. He tried to reassure his son, and promised he would bounce back.

“It just made him hungrier to go out and prove everybody wrong,” Robert Sharpe told the Star in a phone interview. “The work ethic in practice was escalated. He constantly just wanted to be in the gym. We saw a change shortly after that.”

Shaedon is now enrolled at the University of Kentucky, one of the NCAA’s top men’s basketball programs, after being ranked by ESPN as the No. 1 high school student in his class.

But with March Madness about to start this week, you won’t see Shaedon on the court. He enrolled at Kentucky, after graduating early from high school, to develop his skills for the next college season. He’s practising with the team, helping the Wildcats prepare for the annual tournament where they are a No. 2 seed.

There’s speculation among NBA draft junkies, however, that the six-foot-six guard won’t even play one game in the NCAA. The latest ESPN mock draft predicts Shaedon would be a top-10 pick if he declares himself eligible, and the NBA gives its approval.

“Hearing that I could be a top-10 draft pick is cool and exciting. Three years ago (after he was cut by Team Ontario) I wouldn’t think I’d be in this position right now,” Shaedon told the Star in a phone interview from the Kentucky campus on Monday.

“So just to hear me maybe being a top-10 draft pick is just crazy to think.”

According to ESPN, Shaedon’s athleticism, potent shot making and creating ability has NBA teams looking at him as a clear-cut lottery pick. With his frame and his seven-foot wingspan, he has all the tools teams desire.

“I would describe my game a lot like Bradley Beal (and) Devin Booker,” Shaedon said. “Players that could get to their spots and create their own shot. I feel like I’m really good at attacking the rim and finishing above the rim but also expanding my game, shooting the three (while) also getting my teammates involved.”

Shaedon could enter the June 23 draft because he graduated from high school early and will turn 19 in May. His family, and Shaedon, dismiss the speculation.

“Our plan, and Shaedon’s plan, is to go back to school,” said his mother, Julia. “We’ve got our circle. That circle has always been a small circle, where we know and trust everyone in it. That’s kind of who we’re going to listen to when the time comes.”

Many wonder how a kid from London, Ont., a city known more for hockey and football, could made such a leap. It’s no mystery to the Sharpe family. They remember all the long drives and dedication that led to this point.

It would begin at the sound of the school bell, and the moment Robert and Julia arrived home from work around 4 p.m. Twice a week, the entire family drove from London to Toronto, about a five-hour round trip, so Shaedon could work with some of the best developmental coaches in the GTA.

Getting gym time in London was difficult, so the long rides to Toronto in their 2006 Pontiac Montana minivan for one- or two-hour practices were worth it. Robert said he tries not to think about the fuel bills, but he’d do it all over again.

He added that Shaedon immediately thanked him for the ride every time they pulled in to the family driveway after another long trek. “Without him I don’t think I’d be here where I am now. I just give thanks to him and my parents,” Shaedon said.

Those moments of gratitude meant the world to a father who just wanted to see his son prove to the world how gifted he was.

“Honestly, I know a lot of parents looked at us and said, ‘Man, you’re crazy to be travelling after work and being so dedicated,’” Robert said. “But we saw the love and the look in his eyes when he stepped on the court … We said if you’re going to go in with this all the way, we’re going to support you.”

Football was actually Shaedon’s first love in London. Robert said he knew his son had athletic talent at age five, when he caught a football with one hand. He bounced off the walls at home and went on to play competitively for the London Junior Mustangs.

At the time, he used basketball for conditioning. But when he broke his right leg in a football semifinal right before starting high school, the family decided it was time for a change.

“We called it divine intervention,” said Julia. “We said: That’s God making the decision for you. It was around the time that the movie ‘Concussion’ came out, and still to this day we haven’t watched it.”

Mo Haidar, Shaedon’s coach in Grade 10, recalls the first time he heard murmurs about a rising basketball talent from London. Haidar has coached there for more than 15 years, and whenever he hears about a local prospect he’s hopeful, but takes it with a grain of salt.

“When I first heard about Shaedon, I was just cautiously optimistic. But when he first stepped on the court, I was a believer,” the coach said. “After that first tryout or practice, you could see it right away. He was different.”

Shaedon would go on to score a record 58 points in a game for Haidar’s London Basketball Academy on the national junior circuit.

“London is a little low-key city, but it’s really know for its hockey. Originally, I was going to play hockey but I wanted to switch it up play football, now play basketball,” Shaedon said.

“I just want to bring basketball to the city. I feel like I did help basketball to London.”

Another day also stood out for Shaedon’s former coach.

Haidar received texts from most parents and players saying they likely wouldn’t make it to a scheduled practice because of a snowstorm. The coach decided to go anyway, just in case someone showed up.

“I got to the gym and Shaedon was the only one there. He was there before I was,” said Haidar. “I thought to myself: There’s four feet of snow outside, he doesn’t live close and he’s here before me.

“It was just a testament to his work ethic and his will to want to get better. He’s the definition of a gym rat. He just wants to play basketball.”

That hard work paid off. About a year after the heartbreak of being cut by Team Ontario, Shaedon made the national under-16 team. In 2019, he travelled to Brazil and helped his country to a silver medal at the FIBA Americas championship.

Then Team Ontario came calling again, two years after he didn’t make the team.

“It was hard in the moment (when he was cut) because I felt like I could play with those guys and was better than most of those guys on that team,” Shaedon said. “But it was really just motivation to push myself.

“I feel like everything happens for a reason. Me getting cut from Team Ontario happened for a good cause.”

At the same time, he was making a name for himself in Nike Elite Youth Basketball with Uplay Canada — the same team where NBA stars R.J. Barrett and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander honed their craft.

After catching the eye of scouts, Shaedon went on to play prep school basketball in Kansas, and then Glendale, Ariz., with Dream City Christian School. He made his mark there. In his junior year, he averaged 21.4 points, six rebounds and three assists in 12 games.

This past summer with Uplay he led the Nike league in scoring, averaging 22.6 points in just over 28 minutes a game. His shot making, shot creation and freakish athleticism stood out. That was when ESPN ranked Shaedon as No. 1 among high school recruits in the class of 2022.

He arrived at Kentucky in January amid a frenzy of speculation about his future, and has been practising and training with the team while attending classes.

He hasn’t been alone. His older sister Amari moved there as well after finishing school, to help him prepare for the next stage of his life.

“When Shaedon was younger I would always do little interviews with him, and pretend like he’s a big NBA star and ask him interview questions, and he’d laugh and not be able to answer them,” she recalled. “I feel like I helped him practise for what’s going on right now, because there’s a lot of media coverage.”

The drive from London to watch Shaedon train is now a seven-hour journey to Kentucky, but the family is used to road trips. And they can’t get enough of watching him on the court.

“A seven-hour drive? We joke with the coaching staff and we’re like: You guys are our neighbours,” mom Julia said. “We’re going to be here every chance we’ve got because seven hours is literally nothing.”