NCCU Men’s Basketball Coach LeVelle Moton Reveals How He Nearly Landed John Wall

Wall ended up picking Kentucky and went on to become the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft.

Ysidro (San Diego) star Mikey Williams caused quite a stir in the college basketball recruiting world last week using just eight of the allotted 280 characters on Twitter, “Going to an HBCU wouldn’t be too bad…”

In the aftermath of the George Floyd killing, multiple elite players have taken to social media to express interest in Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

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Williams is widely regarded as the top player in 2023, and his mother, Charisse, was a standout softball player at Hampton, an HBCU.

His tweet prompted a flurry of offers from HBCU like North Carolina Central, Alabama State, Delaware State, Grambling State, Howard, Morehouse and others.

The interest from elite players to attend HBCU isn’t a new trend, in the 2020 class Josh Christopher and Makur Maker both had serious interest in Howard.

Still, Maker is likely headed to the NBA draft and Christopher ended up at Arizona State.

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Actually picking the HBCU is what would be different, a feat that North Carolina Central men’s basketball coach LeVelle Moton nearly pulled off 11 years ago with Washington Wizards All-Star point guard John Wall.

People don't realize how close we were to making this happen...@JohnWall pic.twitter.com/DUUynDsSXD

— LeVelle Moton (@LeVelleMoton) March 27, 2020

According to Moton, he and Wall grew up in the same neighborhood in Raleigh, North Carolina and Wall refers to him as “unc,” short for uncle, “til this day.”

Their relationship led to Wall taking an unofficial visit to NCCU in 2009, but, in the end, Wall went on to commit to Kentucky and a year later he went No. 1 overall in the NBA draft to the Washington Wizards.

“Coach (John) Cal is a wonderful guy and he’s done right by him, but I think that would’ve been one of the ones that provoked change,” Moton said. “He would’ve been a trailblazer and a pioneer, and we would know recruiting a little different if he would’ve made that decision.”