CAIRO, Egypt—Kentucky Hall of Fame coach John Calipari may be six hours away from New York City, but that hasn’t stopped the papers there from speculating he might have contacted the Knicks about in the newly created vacancy of president of the NBA Knicks that occurred when Phil Jackson and the franchise parted ways earlier this week.

But both the Knicks—who are reportedly talking to Isaiah Thomas—and Calipari claim there is no truth to the report. “I intend to be at Kentucky for a LONG time,’’ Calipari said.

Calipari, who made $7.7 million in the Blue Grass last season, seems just as happy producing an assembly line of future NBA stars. His ultimate dream is to have a quarter of the NBA rosters populated by former Kentucky players. To that end, he was in Brooklyn to watch three more of is former freshman prodigies—point guard De’Aaron Fox, guard Malik Monk and center Bam Adebayo—selected in the draft lottery.

That makes 28 of Calipari’s players who have made the quantum leap in his first seven years at Kentucky. Three—center Anthony Davis, guard John Wall and center DeMarcus Cousins—are already All Stars. And it shouldn’t be long before guard Devin Booker joins them.

The rush to riches is not for all his players, though.

Hamidou Diallo, who arrived in the Blue grass from Putnam Science, Conn. Academy in January and practiced with the team as a red shirt, thought long and hard about leaving before he ever played a game for the Cats. While it wasn’t his initial decision to turn pro, the exciting 6-6 wing guard from Queens admits he became intrigued when 7-0 Thon Maker found a way around the NBA’s ban on the high school to pro move by enrolled as a post-graduate Orangeville Prep in Toronto and then declaring for the draft. Maker was selected by Milwaukee with the 10th pick in the 2016 draft.

Diallo declared for the draft without signing with an agent and had a sensational NBA combine– punctuated by a 44-inch and a ½ vertical leap. Diallo could have easily gone somewhere in the first round.

But on the evening when he was supposed to make his final decision, he decided to stay in college and get one year of playing for Calipari under his belt before moving on. “It was my ultimate decision,’’ he said. “Coach Cal never told me whether to go to the NBA or stay. When I graduated from high school early and enrolled at Kentucky, I felt there was just so much more to learn and this was the best place to do it.’’

“I told him, ‘Now, we’re going to Egypt together and you’re going to start playing there,’’ Calipari said. “He was ridiculous today. How good was he? He is scary. He’s gotten so much better. He’s not the same player he was last summer. He’s more disciplined, more skilled. He’ll still do some undisciplined things, but we expect that. What I want him to do, if he wants to be the best player in the country, we got to get a lot done. his offense happens because he run and jump and move without the ball. He’s shooting it a lot better than he has. So now, it’s just ‘Let’s see.’’’

Judging from the way he is playing here in the World Cup scrimmages at the Cairo International Stadium, he made the right decision. Diallo showed flashes of enormous potential last summer when he made the U18 national team that won a gold medal in the FIBA Americas tournament in Argentina. But he has showcased his talent here, scoring 16 points Thursday night as the U.S. defeated a medal contending French team, 82-60, in a pre-tournament scrimmage. Diallo shot 6-for-9 and made 4-of-5 free throws as the Americans ran a clinic on the French, shooting 64 percent in an efficiently run offense where they had 20 assists on 29 field goals and outscored the French, 46-28, in the pain while relying heavily on a lethal mix of defenses with big and small lineups that produced 28 fast break points and limited France to 35 percent shooting.

Calipari has cut down his rotation. He feels more comfortable playing 10 ½ on a regular basis instead of 12, depending heavily on a first eight and playing four others for portions of the first and second half. “We ended up playing 12, but only 10 in a half. Going with 12, I know who I’m playing.’’

His most dependable players have been Diallo, 6-9 freshman forward PJ Washington—a beast who finished with 13 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists. Centers Austin Wiley and Brandon McCoy, who each combined for 18 points and 14 rebounds. Versatile 6-8 high school senior point guard Cameron Reddish from the Westtown, Pa. School had six points, six rebounds and six assists.

“I felt like on the defensive end we pressed out and played great defense, we got a lot of rebounds, got out of fast breaks and just converted on those,’’ Washington said. “If we got stops, I feel like offense comes easy for us. I feel like we’re not a half court team, that we’re more of a fast break team, so good defense is real important to us.’’
I’ve long felt Calipari – a 2015 Naismith Hall of Fame inductee—never got the credit he deserved as a bench coach who rapidly developed players into NBA prospects in less than a year and had the vision to experiment with new ideas.

“We’re getting better and better each time we play,’’ Diallo said. “We haven’t been together that long. It’s just all a learning process.’’