Shaedon Sharpe Says He’s Happy to Be With Blazers in NBA Draft Interview

The Portland Trail Blazers drafted Shaedon Sharpe with the 7th pick of the 2022 NBA Draft. Following the selection, Sharpe was interviewed at the draft venue. Here’s a transcript of the questions and quotes, courtesy of the NBA and ASAP Sports.

Q. You grew up in London, Ontario. Did you go to the Stratford, the Shakespeare festivals, any hockey?

SHAEDON SHARPE: My first sport growing up was hockey, so I did like pro skating. And in terms of like festivals, I did go to like Sunfest and some other ones.

Q. What’s the first thing you’re going to buy with your NBA paycheck, and who are you looking forward to playing against?

SHAEDON SHARPE: I’ll probably invest my money into some type of crypto or something, or even just help my family out. But in terms of like playing against an NBA player, I’d probably say LeBron.

Q. Curious, what made you switch from hockey to playing basketball? Obviously the right decision, but what led to that?

SHAEDON SHARPE: Well, originally I played football. I went from hockey to playing football and then basketball. But I mean, I just found the love playing basketball with friends and family. We would play outside, in the gym at the Y. I just fell in love with it.

Q. Being from Canada, it seems like over in Canada, the Canadians, they are upset with all you guys playing basketball — you’re laughing, so you know where I’m going with that question. Is basketball taking more sports base away from hockey in Canada?

SHAEDON SHARPE: I feel like basketball is taking over in Canada just because we’ve had many draft picks come out of Canada.

So yeah, I feel like it’s taking over. But hockey is still in Canada. So it’s two sports.

Q. Did today and tonight unfold how you expected it to in terms of where you went? Did you have any indication that you would go here and where you’re at now?

SHAEDON SHARPE: I really had no clue, honestly. I mean, when I found out where I was going, it was the same time you guys found out. I really just soaked in everything and just had fun with it.

Well, I’m not sure it’s a good sign than a high-risk, reputation-exceeding-performance rookie is investing heavily into cryptocurrencies, but we’ll let that go for now.

Bleacher Report’s Sean Highkin also had quotes from Sharpe.

On his outlook on being drafted by the Blazers:

“I’m really excited to get started. I can’t wait to get to Portland.”

On not playing at the University of Kentucky:

I asked Shaedon Sharpe what kind of feedback he got from teams during the draft process about his decision not to play at Kentucky. “They did ask me about that, just to see what I said. But they knew I could compete because they saw it in the workouts.”

On his interactions with Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard:

Shaedon Sharpe said he didn’t get a chance to have a conversation with Damian Lillard while he was in town to work out, although Lillard was watching with the front office/coaching staff.