{"id":608205,"date":"2026-02-17T15:21:29","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T15:21:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/608205\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T15:21:29","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T15:21:29","slug":"denzel-aberdeen-enjoyed-florida-homecoming-and-all-of-the-boos-were-going-to-see-them-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/608205\/","title":{"rendered":"Denzel Aberdeen enjoyed Florida homecoming – and all of the boos: ‘We’re going to see them again.’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt might not be that much love on that day, for sure,\u201d Denzel Aberdeen<\/a> said of his Valentine\u2019s Day return to Gainesville <\/a>following the ugly breakup that saw him leave Florida for Kentucky<\/a> after three seasons suiting up for his hometown Gators. And he wasn\u2019t wrong \u2014 there were no cards, flowers and chocolates waiting for him at the O\u2019Dome.<\/p>\n

Instead, the Rowdy Reptiles showered him with boos all afternoon, starting when he first came out for warmups, then during player introductions and every single time he touched the basketball the rest of the way. \u201cTraitor\u201d was one of the common insults hurled his way, among others.<\/p>\n

Mark Pope<\/a> knew it\u2019d be an emotional day for the Orlando native, as it was not only a championship reunion \u2014 one that unexpectedly included former teammates Walter Clayton Jr. and Will Richard, who returned during the NBA All-Star break \u2014 but also his homecoming. It wasn\u2019t his most efficient day (8-21 FG, 1-6 3PT), but Aberdeen still went for 19 points, four assists, one rebound and one steal in 34 minutes, coming up big in key moments during the Wildcats\u2019 comeback push that fell just short. <\/p>\n

His head coach was pleased with his response to all of the extra stuff that came with the weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cFlorida fans know Denzel. I mean, Denzel is the ultimate competitor,\u201d Pope said after the 92-83 loss.<\/a> \u201cI never worry about the lights with him, I never worry about the moment, I never worry about distractions \u2014 he loves to compete. This fanbase knows him, and of course, our fanbase loves him so much. He\u2019s a competitor, he\u2019s a special competitor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Did the fan reaction surprise him at all, knowing everything Aberdeen brought to the table as a Gator, on the floor at the final buzzer of the program\u2019s championship win last April? <\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d Pope dismissed. \u201cNo, he wasn\u2019t either.\u201d<\/p>\n

The reality is that the senior guard knows what he signed up for when he traded out the blue and orange for blue and white in the intraconference move. It was a controversial decision and he owns that. He knew the boos were coming and they didn\u2019t bother him.<\/p>\n

In fact, he sort of enjoyed the experience, factoring in the reception and the 50 loved ones he had in attendance there supporting him \u2014 outside of the loss, of course.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was cool, it was fun.\u00a0A lot of my family members were there,\u201d Aberdeen told KSR on Monday.<\/a> \u201cI got to see a lot of old people that I used to be around all the time, so it was a great experience.\u00a0Sadly, we couldn\u2019t get the win, but overall, it was a good experience. \u2026 I most definitely was (expecting the boos).<\/p>\n

\u201cI was kind of locked into the game, so I couldn\u2019t really hear it for real. But I was expecting it regardless, so I wasn\u2019t really worried about it too much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alex Condon, Thomas Haugh, Rueben Chinyelu, Urban Klavzar, Micah Handlogten and Isaiah Brown are among the Gators back from last year\u2019s championship run, there to give him grief about his departure, but also make him pay by returning to Lexington with a loss. They all made it clear from the beginning that that was the goal, Aberdeen said.<\/p>\n

KSR Top 10Top 10Top 101Resume Check<\/p>\n

Another big week for UK<\/p>\n

Hot<\/a>2Odds<\/p>\n

Cats open as favorite vs. UGA<\/p>\n

\"BetMGM<\/a>3SEC Bulletin Board<\/p>\n

Catch the fever!<\/p>\n

New<\/a>4<\/a>5SEC Tourney Projection<\/p>\n

A logjam behind Florida. <\/p>\n

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\u201cSeeing my old teammates, just talking trash, it was kind of fun. They got the best of me, but we\u2019re going to see them again.\u00a0But no, it was fun. \u2026 They did (give me a hard time), they were talking to me after the game. I told them we\u2019re going to see them again, but no, it was nothing but love out there at home.\u00a0I mean, we were all battling,\u00a0talking trash and stuff like that. But it was most definitely fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

What he didn\u2019t expect, though, was Clayton and Richard \u2014 now members of the Utah Jazz and Golden State Warriors, respectively \u2014 giving him the business sitting courtside. He enjoyed seeing two other guards he competed with in the trenches on their way to a title back in Gainesville and loves that they\u2019re finding success in the NBA.<\/p>\n

They need to know, though, he heard them booing with the rest of the fans, and he has something to say about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was amazing (seeing them).\u00a0Walt and Will, we obviously did something special last year. Two very good players doing great in the league right now,\u201d Aberdeen told KSR. \u201cThey was along with the boos in there, I kind of heard them. They were just trying to get in my head [laughs]. But no, it was fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aberdeen wished he had gotten more shots to fall and turned a feel-good homecoming into a feel-great homecoming, but fortunately for him and the rest of the Wildcats, they\u2019ll get their shot at a Rupp Arena rematch in the regular season finale on March 7.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s definitely excited about that one, but Kentucky has five more games to worry about before getting to that point. No time to look ahead. Take care of business over the next two weeks, then focus on the revenge before postseason play begins.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not really looking forward to it right now \u2014 I\u2019m just taking it one game at a time, trying to beat Georgia,\u201d he told KSR. \u201cWe can see them multiple times, we can see them one more time. You never know.\u00a0It\u2019s just one game at a time right now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIt might not be that much love on that day, for sure,\u201d Denzel Aberdeen said of his Valentine\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":608206,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,14352,4000],"class_list":{"0":"post-608205","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-denzel-aberdeen-22-dr-phillips","10":"tag-kentucky-basketball"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116086656722629768","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=608205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/608206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}