Jeff Sheppard is one of Kentucky basketball's beloved, winning two national championships with the Wildcats and earning most outstanding player honors at the 1998 Final Four. Sheppard, a graduate of McIntosh High, also played briefly with the Hawks in the 1998-99 season before a stint in Italy. Sheppard now lives in London, Ky., with his wife, Stacey, herself a former Kentucky basketball star, and their two children. Sheppard runs an apparel company called 15inc and is vice president of Wazoo Sports, a regional sports network.
Q: Was the 1998 tournament the best you've ever played?
A: Yeah, probably so, both collectively as a team and also individually. It wasn’t only the Final Four, but the last part of the season in 1998 was just a really strong run for us.
Q: Has anyone ever explained to you why it's the most outstanding player and not the most valuable player?
A: No, no one's ever explained that. [Laugh] I still don't know. I really don't think about it too much.
Q: What do you remember most about visiting the White House after winning the championship?
A: I guess my most vivid memory is the Secret Service asking me to take my hands out of my pockets as President Clinton got close to shaking my hand. I actually got reprimanded by the Secret Service. That's one of the things that sticks out.
Q: Does it ever strike you as incongruous how your career -- going from Peachtree City to Kentucky and winning an NCAA title -- played out?
A: I'm a big believer that God has a plan for my life and everything that happened has happened because of God's timing and his purpose. As a boy, I dreamed about playing basketball at Kentucky. I wrote a paper in the sixth grade about wanting to go to the Final Four with Kentucky, so to be able to live that dream, I'm just very fortunate, very blessed, to be able to live the dream and develop the relationships with the people that I have along the way. No, I don't consider it chance or luck or anything. Just a real blessing.
Q: Do you think you got a fair shake with the NBA?
A: Yeah, I do. My professional basketball career was a little strange. I think everybody gets a fair shake at the NBA. If you can play, you'll be on the team in the NBA. The toughest thing about the NBA is, in a position like I was, where I was going to be a role player at the end of the bench. The toughest thing isn't making the team. It's staying on the team. You have an influx of new players every year that you have to fend off. [Six-foot-3] shooting guards are a dime a dozen in basketball.
Q: Was it difficult to move past being a basketball player?
A: I'm still a basketball player, but yeah. I tell you what's difficult is you miss being part of a team. You miss the training and the tough times and the film sessions and the ups and downs and competing together and the fun times in the locker room.
Q: What's your ultimate goal with your businesses?
A: 15inc belongs to me and Stacey, and we have eight employees, and it's in our hometown. We just hope to keep that business and grow it and be able to have a nice little successful small business. And then with Wazoo Sports, it's completely different. It has a lot of potential to grow state by state, to be something very big and very special. We hope that we grow Wazoo Sports into the next ESPN. Not too ambitious or anything.
Q: If you take 10 shots from the 3-point line, how many do you make?
A: I'll tell you an embarrassing story. My last 10 shots in Rupp Arena was a promotion for Papa John's Pizza. I was 1-for-10. If I'm in the driveway by myself, I can shoot it pretty good.
Q: It was a halftime promotion?
A: I shot against another student. I've had better reactions on Rupp Arena's floor, let's leave it that way. It was all positive, no boos or anything. The worst part was my teammate Scott Padgett in the front row heckling me the whole time.
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