Inside George Kimble's Rise, Road to Vanderbilt Basketball

NASHVILLE---George Kimble liked football and baseball, but there was something he couldn’t put down.

As soon as Kimble’s sister got back from USF basketball camp, the green and white basketball that she was rewarded for winning defensive player of the week was stolen by her infant brother. Perhaps that would be a precursor of sorts for the Vanderbilt transfer, who made himself appealing to power-five programs like Vanderbilt and Miami after a season at Eastern Kentucky in which he scored 18.0 points per game as a byproduct of his off-the-bounce game. There’s never been a time in Kimble’s life when that wasn’t a piece of his arsenal.

“He couldn’t even walk at the time,” Kimble’s father George Sr. told Vandy on SI. “He just sat on the floor every day trying to dribble the basketball, so much so that my wife and I were laying in the bed one morning and she goes ‘this boy is gonna drive us crazy with this basketball.’”

From the time before Kimble was born, his parents had a feeling he’d be “special” in whatever way he chose to impact the world, but his infancy offered a look into a career that would ultimately see him go from an under recruited star to a player that Vanderbilt coach Mark Byington believed was good enough to play power-five basketball based on his tape.

16 months into his life, Kimble “could dribble up and down the court as good as any five or six year old.” As a two-year old he started playing games at the YMCA. When he was four, he worked on double-clutch layups while his dad videoed him working out. By the time he was six, he was playing with 11 and 12 year olds and ultimately left “because it wasn’t competitive enough.”

“He has a gift,” Kimble’s father said. “He came to us early and told us that God showed him that he would get the chance to play in the NBA one day so we believe that, we trust in that. We’ve been nose to the grindstone since he was a little boy.”

Vanderbilt faces Kimble's former team on Wednesday night. | George Kimble

Kimble played his first junior varsity basketball game as a sixth grader and took on a full-time role as a junior varsity player as a seventh grader. His only season playing against his grade level was third grade, a year in which his team won the state championship.

Once he got to high school, the now-Vanderbilt guard did everything he could to get on Division-I radar. He played through injury. He scored it. He outplayed former four-star recruit Karter Knox. He played “team-first” basketball at camps and showcases. He won Hillsborough County Player of the Year.

Yet, the Division-I offers were few and far between.

“I feel like I’ve been underrated my whole basketball career,” Kimble told Vandy on SI in the summer. “I just keep a chip on my shoulder knowing I’m kind of an underdog.”

Along with the chip on his shoulder, Kimble also kept a healthy dose of faith in his mind as he went through injury troubles and wasn’t often recruited as a high schooler. Kimble’s father was a preacher throughout his childhood and often reminded him that their family was created to be a “blessing” to others.

Kimble took his parents’ advice as he developed a passion for giving back as a child, so much so that his parents started a non-profit organization called WeSeeU Inc. He also took his parents’ habits into account when adversity popped up in his recruitment.

“A lot of trials and tribulations just drew me closer to God,” Kimble said. “In your darkest times it’s hard for you to battle through stuff by yourself, having a relationship with God definitely gets you through it.”

Kimble would have to learn those things the hard way as a high school upperclassman hoping to become a Division-I basketball player out of high school.

The D-I program that did offer Kimble as a junior and lauded his ability to “play the right way” in often selfish camp settings was South Florida. Head coach Brian Gregory and his staff were all about Kimble and the possibility of him becoming a piece of their roster, until they were let go before Kimble could commit. The other schools that promised to show up to games never did.

As a result, Kimble was left searching for a Division-I program to see what he and his family saw in his game at that point and decided to go to Division-II Eckerd College when his lack of Division-I options became apparent.

“My junior year I had a couple offers, but with some coaching changes and uncertainties I just wanted to go to Eckerd College,” Kimble said. “The coach believed in me and would allow me to show what I could do. I went there and had a pretty good year.”

Kimble averaged 19.4 points per game in his freshman season despite breaking his hand two weeks before the season.

As Kimble’s parents took him home from surgery, their son still didn’t have any doubt as to whether he’d be able to be effective as he took the floor for Eckerd.

“Mom, dad, it’s okay,” Kimble told them, his father said. “I’m still gonna be freshman of the year.”

Kimble lived up to his declaration that season as he earned the Sunshine State Conference freshman of the year award. The 6-foot-2 guard felt as if there was more out there for him as a college player.

As a result, Kimble amicably exited Eckerd and put his name in the transfer portal. For the first time, his phone was consistently buzzing. He was a commodity of sorts. The Tampa, Florida, native believed he was a power-five player, but ultimately was left to pick between Elon and Eastern Kentucky.

Kimble chose Eastern Kentucky because of head coach A.W. Hamilton’s more direct coaching style that he and his family believed fit him and what he needed to improve in that stage of his career.

Hamilton appeared to get everything he wanted out of Kimble in the 25 games he played. The 6-foot-2 guard went for 18.0 points, 3.7 rebounds and 3.2 assists a night and was the second leading scorer in the ASUN.

Then, it happened again. Six years after a cartilage issue popped up in his right knee, the same happened Kimble’s left and forced him to miss the end of the season and to go into the transfer portal coming off of an injury.

“It kinda weighed on him a little bit because we didn’t know how long and when he would be able to get his surgery,” “I told him ‘you have to be patient, because God’s timing is perfect. You can’t lay around wondering and hoping and wishing. You have to make things happen and trust God. That’s all you can do. You have to trust the Lord and he’ll make it happen when it’s his time.’”

Kimble had to take that to heart as he waited from Mar. 9 to June 5. in order to make his transfer decision. Gonzaga called and eventually backed off. Florida did the same, per Kimble’s father. Kimble knew he was a power-five player, but his injury forced programs to pass him over in order to recruit players that could play immediately for them while he looked for one that would be patient with his recovery process.

The 6-foot-2 guard heard from Byington and the Vanderbilt staff in the early spring and ultimately continued to hear from them up until his commitment date in June. Byington and staff believed Kimble was worth the wait that will be inevitable as a result of his cartilage issue.

His dad believes that’s a worthwhile decision.

“We talked about it,” Kimble’s father said, “‘You’re gonna be the next Damian Lillard story. You’re gonna be the next Steph Curry story, the next dude that nobody found out about until it was too late.”