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Seven could be the lucky number for Canadian prospects at Thursday's NBA Draft from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY.
Kansas star Andrew Wiggins of Vaughan, Ontario could go as high as first overall to the Cleveland Cavaliers and he could be among seven Canadian players - three of them as high as the first round - that may be selected.
You can catch the 2014 NBA Draft live on TSN beginning at 7pm et/4pm et with coverage moving to TSN2 at 8:30pm et/5:30pm pt. TSN.ca will have pick-by-pick coverage of the draft as well as a live chat with TSN Radio and TSN.ca basketball analyst, Will Strickland.
Along with Wiggins, Michigan guard Nik Stauskas of Mississauga, Ontario and Brampton, Ontario's Tyler Ennis of Syracuse are also expected to be taken in the first round.
Stauskas - widely considered to be the best pure shooter in this year's crop - may be taken in the Top 10, while the speedy Ennis is expected to be taken in the Top 20.
"We all had hoop dreams, we all wanted to play in the NBA," Wiggins said of growing up in Canada. "It's huge - especially having three people that high in the draft. I don't think that's ever been done before in Canada, maybe we've had one or two. But now we have three guys."
Stauskas is equally excited about his chances.
"It's cool," he said. "I've watched these kids grow up for the last 10 years, the same way they've watched me grow up. To see us all together now and all the success (we had) at the college level, and the NBA level, it's crazy to see. I really hope that the eight, nine, 10-year-old kids who are starting to play basketball in Canada, I hope they look up to us, and I hope we inspire someone. . . I'm really proud of these guys. I love being Canadian and I hope people recognize that."
Ennis adds that tonight's draft could be a watershed moment for Canadian basketball.
After those three, Iowa State's Melvin Ejim (Toronto) and Khem Birch (Montreal), Stanford's Dwight Powell - a power forward out of Toronto - and Arizona State's Jordan Bachynski all have a chance of being selected in the two rounds.
The record for most Canadians taken in a draft is three in 1983 (Leo Rautins, Ron Crevier and Stewart Granger) and in 2012 (Andrew Nicholson, Robert Sacre and Kris Joseph) all taken. With that number poised to be surpassed, what's even more remarkable is that tonight could mark the first time that Canadians have been taken first overall in back to back years. That is, if the Cavaliers select Wiggins.
A year after selecting Tristan Thompson of Brampton, Ontario with the fourth overall pick out of Texas in 2011, the Cavs went to Brampton again to take UNLV's Anthony Bennett with the first overall selection last June.
Ennis believes that few would have given that possibility a second thought only a few years ago.
"To have potentially two No. 1 one picks (back-to-back), is something that five years ago people would not have believed," he said. "To have eight people [Wiggins's older brother, Nick of Wichita State, has also delcared] in the draft, I don't think people would have believed that as well. (It's) something that Canada is going to remember forever."
For Wiggins's part, he admitted nervousness on the eve before hearing his name called by NBA commissioner Adam Silver.
"You want to know what's going to happen, because tomorrow is the day that your destiny, everything changes, the city you live in, where you're going to spend the next four years."
The Cavaliers are on the clock at 7pm et/4pm pt. The Toronto Raptors will pick at No. 20.
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