Andrew Wiggins is a supremely gifted basketball player who received national media attention before he could even get his drivers license.

Sound familiar?

The only difference is, Wiggins isn’t from a basketball hotbed. He’s from Vaughan, Ontario, Canada. His dad is former NBAer Mitch Wiggins, and his mother is a former Canadian olympic track star… so he has the genetics, and it shows. He makes 360 behind-the-back dunks look effortless. His jumping ability is off the charts – he plays above the rim and gets there quicker than any others I’ve seen.

The 6’7 small forward now plays at an American prep school, letting him hone his game against tougher competition than had he stayed in Canada. According to NBAdraft.net, he’s comparable to Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen; he’s the #1 SF recruit in his graduating class; and people who know basketball better than I do like his chances to be the #1 overall pick in the 2014 NBA draft.

(Let’s hope he doesn’ inherit ALL his Dad’s skills. For a “shooting” guard, Mitch didn’t take or make a whole lot of 3-pointers. )

And the word is, Andrew is as humble and unassuming as they come. Classic Canadian, eh? Here’s a quote from a recent National Post story about him:

“I watched him play last week [and] in the last minute of a tied game, he got the ball twice, in isolation plays, drove and dunked on the whole entire team to win the game,” said Rowan Barrett, the executive vice president and assistant GM of Canada’s senior men’s national team. “No celebration … he walked to the free-throw line like, ‘I’ve been here before, I’ve done this before,’ hit the free throws, didn’t stare anybody down; no chest bumping.

Welp, I know I’ll be cheering for him.