Former KU Jayhawk Kenny Gregory’s NBA Combine record falls after two decades
Former University of Kansas basketball shooting guard/small forward Kenny Gregory no longer owns the record for the top maximum vertical leap in NBA Combine history.
Keon Johnson, who just completed his freshman year at Tennessee, on Wednesday skied to a maximum vertical jump of 48 inches at the 2021 NBA Combine in Chicago. Johnson, a 6-foot-5, 185 pound guard out of Shelbyville, Tennessee, shattered Gregory’s 20-year maximum vertical jump record mark of 45.5 inches set in 2001.
Johnson’s standing vertical leap was measured at 41.5 inches on Wednesday. Gregory, 6-6 out of Columbus, Ohio, had a standing vertical of 39.5 inches in 2001.
“Someone sent me an article about it this evening. I have to check this kid out. He clearly can fly!” the 42-year-old Gregory told The Star on Wednesday night via a direct message on Facebook.
“I’m actually surprised the record stood this long. It was a good run. You have something 20 years it’s time to give it up,” Gregory, who was known for his high-flying, acrobatic slam dunks at KU, added to The Star.
KU’s Ochai Agbaji, a 6-5, 215-pound guard who has entered the NBA Draft with a deadline of July 7 to remove his name from the draft pool if he wishes to play his senior season at KU, had a maximum vertical leap of 41.5 inches recorded Wednesday at the 2021 Combine. Texas’ Jericho Sims, who is 6-10, turned in an impressive maximum vertical leap of 44.5, which ties Hamidou Diallo (44.5 in 2017) for third on the all-time Combine list behind only Johnson and Gregory.
“I never really thought about it until people would bring it up to me around Combine-time over the years,” Gregory said Wednesday of his long-standing record.
Gregory, played at KU from 1998 to 2001. He went undrafted in 2001 after averaging 15.6 points and 7.3 rebounds a game in 2000-01, his senior season at KU.
“I was telling a friend today that the only thing I remember is I didn’t think I jumped very well that day (in 2001 when he set the Combine record) until I saw the results the next day. Go figure,” Gregory stated in an interview with The Star in 2017 after Diallo came so close to breaking his mark.
Gregory played one year in the NBA Development League, then played for professional teams in Spain, Greece, Turkey, France, Italy and England. Gregory retired from basketball in 2012. He reports that he currently owns a logistics company and has some other business ventures in Ohio.
UT’s Johnson, by the way, scored eight points on 3-of-8 shooting and grabbed one rebound while starting and playing 20 minutes in Tennessee’s 80-61 victory over KU last winter in Knoxville, Tennessee. He had three turnovers, no assists in the game. The 18-year-old Johnson — he averaged 11.3 points (44.9% shooting), 3.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists in 27 games for the Vols his one season in college.— is regarded as a likely lottery pick in the upcoming NBA Draft.
This story was originally published June 24, 2021 at 7:50 AM with the headline "Former KU Jayhawk Kenny Gregory’s NBA Combine record falls after two decades."
