Skal Labissiere

Skal Labissiere, son of Lesly and Ema, was born in 1996 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Labissiere moved to the US in 2010 and spent his first years of high school at Memphis's Evangelical Christian School. Before his senior year, he transferred to Lausanne Collegiate School and played ball for Reach Your Dream Prep, where he caught the eye of Kentucky coach John Calipari. Before his freshman year at Kentucky, DraftExpress tabbed Labissiere as the top projected pick in the 2016 Draft. He journeyed back to Port-au-Prince seven years after leaving and helps lead a youth camp for Haitian basketball players, teaching them fundamentals and serving as a mentor figure. Labissiere has donated life-saving natural disaster equipment to city safety officials in the case of another earthquake like the one which forced him to leave so abruptly in 2010. You can follow him on Twitter @OneBigHaitian and on Instagram @Skal_Lab. A highly touted recruit out of high school, Labissiere spent his lone collegiate season at Kentucky. He appeared in 36 games, averaging 6.6 points, 3.1 rebounds and 15.8 minutes per contest. A two-time SEC Freshman of the Week, Labissiere ranked in the top-10 in the conference in blocks per game. His top scoring performance of the season came in a win over NJIT on Nov. 14 with 26 points on 10-of-12 shooting in only 21 minutes. In the first round of the NCAA Tournament, Labissiere went for 12 points and six blocks in a win over Stony Brook. He'd finish with four points and five rebounds in 15 minutes during the subsequent defeat to Indiana.