John Calipari does the John Wall Dance at SEC Tipoff '26: 'He's a good one.'

The player who started it all for Coach Cal in Lexington decided to call it a career back in August, John Wall hanging up his Reebok ZigTechs after 11 years in the NBA where he became a five-time All-Star with stops in Washington, Houston and Los Angeles. He then got his full-circle moment at Kentucky this past weekend, returning for Big Blue Madness to recreate his iconic dance with Ice Cream Paint Job playing over the loudspeakers alongside Mark Pope, throwing it back to 2009.

A player who deserves all of the flowers in the world for his impact on the game of basketball at the high school, college and professional levels is getting them, and his old coach isn’t missing his chance to do the same.

John Calipari, 16 years removed from his time with Wall at Kentucky, spoke with KSR about the former Wildcat’s legacy and the impact he had on his career coaching in the SEC — now entering his second season at Arkansas. He started by thanking Wall’s late mother, Frances Pulley, who died of breast cancer in 2019, for the opportunity to coach her son.

“His mother was the greatest. He was with me because of his mother,” Calipari said at SEC Tipoff ’26. “She kind of said, ‘That’s where you’re going.’ He did this one (John Wall Dance), all that. It went viral.”

And by “this one,” he means the actual John Wall Dance, which he did himself on stage in Birmingham for the dozens of reporters in the crowd and the thousands of others watching via stream and TV back home.

When KSR asked about John Wall's retirement, Coach Cal first thanked his late mother, Frances Pulley — who died of breast cancer in 2019 — for the opportunity to coach her son at Kentucky.

Then he did the John Wall Dance.

"He’s a good one."

READ: https://t.co/JwA3nPMX8t pic.twitter.com/SRwulWer0t

— Jack Pilgrim (@JackPilgrimKSR) October 15, 2025

Then he dug into the Wall vs. Eric Bledsoe dynamic and how people looked at him like a crazy person for taking both of their commitments at Kentucky — knowing he’d be able to make it work because of how talented they both were.

“He and Eric Bledsoe — they were two peas in a pod,” Calipari told KSR. “It was funny, one of their coaches said, ‘Why would you take both John Wall and Eric Bledsoe? They’re the same position.’ And I said to them, ‘If two of your best players are the same position, what would you do?’ ‘Well, I’d play them both.’ ‘Well, that’s what I’ll do.'”

That’s when Coach Cal got carried away with the storytelling, lost in the good vibes of that magical 2009-10 group in Lexington.

“I said to Eric, ‘How fast is John Wall?’ He said, ‘Oh, my, Coach, he is so fast.’

“‘Is he faster than you?’

“‘Oh, no, not faster than me.’

“They got along, and it showed who John Wall is. John Wall came in my office, probably in January and said, ‘Coach, we got to help Eric.’ I said, ‘Why?’ He said, ‘Because he doesn’t think he’s going to be in the NBA.’ I said, ‘He is.’ From that point, he and I kind of built up Eric. It was him. He came to me with it. It shows you what he had grown into.

“I miss his mom — she was such a great lady.”

All these years later, Wall still keeps up with Coach Cal, making sure he’s doing okay whether he’s in Lexington or Fayetteville. Schools and SEC rivalries aside, it’s still a player and his coach with so much good history together a decade-and-a-half ago.

“For him, he’s always stayed in touch. He’s always been, like, ‘Coach, what’s going on?’ If anything happens for me, he’s in touch with me,” Calipari told KSR. “He’s a good one.”

A good one, indeed.