Sacramento Kings forward Rudy Gay is due to become an unrestricted free agent next summer, but the Baltimore native said there’s no way he’ll return home and play for the Wizards.

“I’d have way too many ticket requests,” Gay told For The Win. “I’d have to have like 100 tickets a night …”

Gay was the Washington Post’s All-Met Boys’ Basketball Player of the Year in 2004 after averaging 21.2 points, 9.2 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 2.1 assists per game at Archbishop Spalding High in Baltimore. The McDonald’s All-American grew up a Maryland fan and expressed interest in becoming a Terp before ultimately choosing Connecticut.

Gay’s recruitment was a focus of former Washington Post reporter Eric Prisbell’s three-part series from 2009 on Gary Williams’s struggles luring talent to College Park. Gay committed to Connecticut shortly after the Huskies paid to schedule an exhibition game against a team with ties to his AAU coach, and Prisbell wrote that the process “cemented Williams’s belief that signing the most sought-after recruits in the current climate often depends on practices he is unwilling to undertake.”

Even if Gay, who was linked to Washington in 2013 trade talks, changes his mind about playing in the District, the Wizards could be clearing space for another homecoming by then.

(Thanks to For The Win for sharing.)