Two former Wildcats listed among some of the best NBA players in the 21st century

Davis, when healthy, is one of the best big men in the league, After taking the college basketball world by storm in 2011-12, he then proceeded to not miss a beat. Each year he has been in the league, Davis has only averaged under 20 points per game once, which was his rookie year. Davis has dealt with a couple of injuries through his time in the NBA, but it hasn't slowed him down on the court.

CBS Sports added some analysis on ranking Davis as the 19th-best NBA player of the 21st century: "Whenever Davis has been healthy he has been one of the best players in the league, equally dominant on both ends and impossibly skilled for a man of his size. Peak Davis was 2016-18 in New Orleans before he forced his way out, when he was a 28 and 11 guy and probably the best defender on the planet. He had some huge years with the Lakers, too, highlighted by the 2020 championship run in which he turned into Kevin Durant inside the bubble, making an absurd 55% of his mid-range jumpers beyond 16 feet. That was one of the craziest outlier shooting performances in history, but it happened, and it largely led the Lakers to their only championship in the LeBron era."

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander - #24

Gilgeous-Alexander cemented himself as one of the best Kentucky players ever to play in the NBA this past season, leading the Oklahoma City Thunder to their first championship since 2008, all while acheiving the prestigious trifecta of an NBA MVP, scoring title, and also the NBA Finals MVP. He has came a long way in the league since his time at Kentucky. Here's what CBS Sports had to say about Gilgeous-Alexander:

"The man with the longest last name in NBA history also had some of the longest odds to superstardom of anyone on this list. Drafted 11th overall in 2018, Gilgeous-Alexander showed promise as a rookie with the Clippers, who reluctantly included him in a trade to the Thunder in order to land Paul George and Kawhi Leonard in the same summer -- but you can't find a single person outside of the Gilgeous-Alexander household who expected him to blossom into an MVP, the league's leading scorer and an NBA champion before his 27th birthday. His positional size and unique basketball cadence make him virtually unguardable."

These two have been great representatives of the Kentucky program in the NBA, and having two of Kentucky's best NBA products of all time on the list is truly a testiment to how well Kentucky can prepare you for the league. Check out CBS Sports' full top 25 rankings here.