You’ve seen the YouTube video right? If you haven’t, you will watch it right here, right now.
Do you feel unathletic? Good. You should, because that is the son of an Olympic sprinter (Mom) and an NBA basketball player (Dad), the ultimate gene lottery win of recent memory (Blue Ivy probably takes the cake, I suppose). Not since Lebron James has a high school player been so celebrated, but Wiggins is special. A quiet star, he talks with a slight Canadian accent and it is easy to get the sense that he truly doesn’t know how good he is.
In a surprising move on May 16th, 2013, Wiggins woke up and went to school just like any other morning, stopping to get breakfast for his teammates. At roughly 10 a.m., his parents joined him, along with a SINGLE member of the media to let his coach know he had chosen a school. At 11:10 a.m., he announced a few minutes early (a refreshing move, for those who follow amateur recruits) that he would be attending the University of … Kansas.
KANSAS? What about Kentucky, where he could have solidified the recruiting class Coach Cal has collected as the best EVER? What about Florida State, where both his parents attended? What about North Carolina and Roy Williams — didn’t the phone conversations with Michael Jordan make ANY difference? No. Instead, he choose to travel all the way to Lawrence, Kansas to play for Bill Self and the Jayhawks, in what will almost certainly go down as the biggest coup in the Self era.
A few months ago, Kansas wasn’t even recruiting Wiggins. They had their eyes on Julius Randle, a PF from Texas, and already had a solid commitment from East Coast wing Wayne Selden, a McDonald’s All-American. Wiggins politely invited Self and his staff to begin recruiting him, along with North Carolina (A #1 rated recruit did that? No way). Wiggins ended up playing his recruitment so close to the vest that Self had no idea of the commitment until his phone received 150 text messages in ten minutes after the release of the decision. Self could not get a hold of Wiggins for the entire week leading up the announcement, and had to figure he was headed somewhere else. Instead, his “I’ll treat you like any other kid on the team” pitch sold his parents on the program, and the rich history of player development at Kansas convinced Wiggins this was the best place for him to play his obligatory year of college basketball.
Andrew Wiggins, ESPN recruiting profile.
Now, you may be wondering about this whole “Lebron James” comparison – and rightfully so. Andrew Wiggins hasn’t been on SportsCenter continually, buying Hummers, or starring in documentaries. He certainly isn’t a household name, and his senior highlight reel (the best of all time) has only 1.8 million views.
It deserves 25 million.
Hours after the announcement, many of the NBA draft pundits were drooling over his potential. According to Chad Ford, resident NBA draft expert at ESPN, Andrew Wiggins would go number one overall in this year’s NBA draft, let alone the 2014 NBA draft (when he will first be eligible to enter). Every single scout and GM that Ford talked to agreed with his statement…every single one. In fact, according to Ford, Wiggins would go number one overall in every draft dating back to 2007, when Greg Oden and Kevin Durant went #1 and #2 overall. Don’t let me forget to mention Ford also believes Wiggins would go number one overall in 2006, 2005 and 2004, but not 2003. In 2003, the number one overall selection in the NBA draft was…Lebron James.
In this article I’ve made a pretty big deal out of a kid who truly hasn’t done anything. I’m admittedly a bit of a Kansas homer, but it is important that you know who Andrew Wiggins is. Barring a major injury, he will almost certainly gain national player of the year attention at Kansas, and has the potential to be a franchise changing player in the Association. Most importantly though, his humble demeanor will allow him to be a role model for everyone, and in a highly publicized recruitment, he spurned all the attention and let his play do the talking.
Expect big things from him, because he can handle it. As the popular Nike campaign for Lebron James states…”We are all Wigginses.”
The Associates 