One of the awkward fallouts from Florida winning the national title last season was the departure of Denzel Aberdeen from the Gators. Despite being on the floor during the final minute of the national title game and being entrusted enough to take free throws, Aderdeen's father made waves with the comments he made after transferring to Kentucky.
At SEC Media Days, Golden was asked about Aberdeen's departure and essentially confirmed what the speculation was for the guard's departure to a chief rival.
Todd Golden clarifies Denzel Aberdeen's departure
After a couple of tense back-and-forth questions regarding Aberdeen, Golden opened up about why things went south and how Aberdeen wound up at Kentucky:
"We love Denzel. Incredibly grateful for the contributions that he made to our program. He's a huge part of our national championship team.
He was a guy that came with us right when we got the job. The reality is we would have loved to have Denzel back. There were other things that were more important to him than what we had to offer at this point.
That's the opportunity and the right that every student-athlete has, to be able to dictate and determine what's important to them. He had played well enough to put him in a position where he was desired by a lot of programs.
Every person, whether it be a coach or a player, have different things that are important to them when making decisions. Unfortunately, it didn't align. We would have loved to have him back.
I think he's going to have a really good year for Mark. I think he's a great kid, comes from a really good family. I expect him to help them become really successful this year."
Reading between the lines
This more or less aligns with what the Aberdeen camp stated back in April when they left Gainesville. During his now infamous interview, Aberdeen's father had stated two things that riled up Gator Nation:
"His game is very, very unselfish, sometimes to a fault. The more he continued playing, even up to this point, he just needed a place where he could expand his game and show what he could do."
"He hasn't really shown what he can do. You could see spurts of it at Florida and even previously, but he wants a coach who believes in him."
These comments were absurd in real time and still haven't aged well, considering Aberdeen was litteraly taking free throws in the final minute of a one-point game during the national title game.
But Golden's comments also allude to the other backdrop of Aberdeen's departure, and that was a reported $2 million NIL deal Kentucky was willing to pay.
Neither camp has outright said that was the reason, but it doesn't take too much dot connecting to put the pieces together.
Florida will play Kentucky twice this season, including a 2/14 matchup in Gainesville.