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High School Insider Podcast: How Duke's Luke Kennard is preparing for the NBA Draft

Posted at 3:57 PM, May 16, 2017
and last updated 2017-05-16 15:57:14-04

CINCINNATI – Whether he's sitting across from Magic Johnson or Phil Jackson during a pre-NBA Draft interview or working out with Phoenix guard Devin Booker, Luke Kennard is preparing for life in pro basketball.

Kennard, a 2015 Franklin High School graduate and two-time Associated Press Ohio Mr. Basketball winner, has been working out with NBA players and working closely with former NBA player Don MacLean in order to prepare for the June 22 NBA Draft in New Jersey.

On Tuesday, Franklin basketball coach Brian Bales offered some excellent insight to the WCPO High School Insider Podcast about how Kennard is preparing for life in the NBA and where he may be taken in the first round.

Bales also describes how Kennard decided to leave Duke and hire an agent after Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski said Kennard would be a first-round draft pick.

Up to a dozen NBA scouts have called Bales in the past few months doing their homework about Kennard. They’ve even looked into highlights of when Kennard was a high school quarterback with the Wildcats. No stone is left unturned in the evaluation and scouting process for NBA teams.

Bales discussed possible upcoming endorsements for Kennard and what the Franklin community may do in order to follow Kennard during the draft night.

Kennard will likely become the first area four-year high school product to be selected in the first round of the NBA Draft since Brian Grant (Georgetown) in 1994. Former North College Hill standout OJ Mayo was selected in the first round in 2008 but played his senior year of high school basketball at Huntington (W. Va.).

Listen to this episode in the player above.

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