The Grayson basketball team has taken the court for pregame warmups, and many of the visitors on the top rail at gymnasium have started to point and whisper. They see the tall kid wearing the No. 21 jersey and give their friend a nudge. That’s him.
The object of their attention is almost oblivious. He’s aware of it, but he’s already learned to ignore it. Or at least not worry about.
It’s become a way of life for Jacob Wilkins, the young man with the kangaroo springs in his legs. As the youngest son of Hawks and UGA basketball great Dominique Wilkins, he’s been in the spotlight for his entire life. Dozens of fans with cellphone cameras is no big deal.
“Now I’m used to it, but at first it was kind of … I mean, I’ve always felt it and it never made me uncomfortable,” said Wilkins, a 6-foot-9 senior whose face bears a striking resemblance to his famous father. “I think it’s kind of cool that people know you. Even if it’s a good opinion or a bad opinion, I think it’s a good thing when people recognize you.”
Wilkins doesn’t try to run from his heritage, starting with his jersey number.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
“Wearing No. 21 means everything,” he said. “A lot of people in my family were No. 21, so it’s been a big part of their lives. My dad, of course, my brother, my uncles, my cousins. It’s a big family name, and it’s really a legacy.”
Another legacy is his connection to the vertical game. Few players can go higher than Wilkins, snag a pass and slam it resoundingly in the basket. Jacob Wilkins fully discovered his ability to sky during the COVID-19 lockdowns.
“During the quarantine, I’d just go outside. I couldn’t go to the gym, but I had to go in the back of my house and keep trying to dunk,” he said. “I had nothing else to do. Then eventually I just started getting higher and higher and higher, and it took off from there.”
His dominance above the rim has caused Grayson coach Geoffrey Pierce to instruct Wilkins to dunk whenever the opportunity arises.
“I say, look, anytime you get a chance to dunk on somebody, you do it,” Pierce said. “Because they won’t jump with you anymore.”
In addition to the high level of coaching he gets at school and on the AAU level, Wilkins has another edge thanks to his father.
“He’s been a huge influence on my game,” Wilkins said. “He’s always telling me to run as fast as I can, give 110% every time. That’s the main thing. Of course he’s been a big influence on me, him being who he is, and me being from Atlanta. It’s meant a lot to me.”
But he’s never beaten his father in a pickup game — a statistic that comes with an asterisk.
“The thing is, I never beat him because he never played me after I got older,” Wilkins said with a laugh. “He stopped playing me, so I can’t say I beat him, but I’m pretty sure I would beat him if we played today.”
And when it came to making a college selection, the younger Wilkins opted to extend the family line and commit to the University of Georgia, where his father starred from 1979-82. The runner-up was the University of Virginia, where his brother Isaiah (who played at Greater Atlanta Christian) is an assistant coach.
“It really wasn’t a difficult decision for me,” he said. “I always knew that Georgia was home. I felt great going up there, the visits and everything, and I just felt loved by the coaching staff. The decision wasn’t as hard as some people think and I feel like I made the right decision.”
In the meantime, Wilkins is a key piece of the Grayson High School team currently ranked No. 1 in Class 6A and No. 7 in the nation by MaxPreps. He would like to continue to make history at the school, which won its first state championship last spring.
“I’m not done yet,” he said. “I feel I’ve left a legacy by being a part of that team that won the first state championship. That was really fun. Winning two in a row would be even better. Winning back-to-back would be a great thing for our program.”
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
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