LEXINGTON, KY--Kentucky point guard John Wall has taken the college basketball world by storm, dominating his position like few other freshman before him. In a few months, he’ll be selected with the top pick in the NBA draft and begin a career sure to make him a household name.

The tough, diminutive 19-year-old will accomplish all this despite probably having a tragic childhood that was most likely marred by violence and poverty.

“When you look at what John Wall has accomplished, you just have to be impressed,” said ESPN college hoops analyst Digger Phelps. “Here’s a kid that came from nowhere, a real hardscrabble background, I assume, and has become one of college hoops’ elite players. Not only that, he’s a great teammate and a model citizen. This is an example for every inner city kid that grew up amidst poverty and gang violence that there is a way out.”

Scouts say that Wall’s maturity and professionalism are remarkable for someone who has had to overcome so much adversity in his life.

“This kid is so mature and so professional that you tend to forget you’re talking to a 19-year-old,” said one scout. “It’s hard to believe that he probably grew up in an impoverished neighborhood around a lot of drug dealers and thugs, and that basketball was the only thing that kept him off the streets. Actually, it would probably be harder to believe if he didn’t, since he's a Division I college basketball star.”

Wall, however, downplays his tragic upbringing, calling it “pretty normal” in comparison to many of his peers.

“I don’t think I come from a really bad background or anything,” Wall told the Lexington-Herald Leader. “I’ve had my ups and downs like everybody else, but it’s not like I was living on the streets and dodging bullets every day. I’ve actually never even been shot at. No, really. Seriously! Why are you laughing? Ugh...I hate interviews.”

The humble, low key Wall refuses to use his miserable, poverty-stricken childhood as an excuse for anything, says Coach John Calipari. That quality, among many others, separates him from other players.

“John is always downplaying stuff like that,” Calipari said. “You’ll never hear him complain or play the victim card. He’ll tell you he had an okay childhood, but don’t listen to him. All big-time college hoops players have had violent, shitty upbringings, just like all big-time college hoops coaches are sleazy, double-talking snake-oil salesmen who bend the rules. Except me. Okay, I guess there are some exceptions to every stereotype.”

In February, Wall is scheduled to film a public service announcement warning youths about the dangers of drugs, gangs, and violence, which Wall claims to understand “first hand” after watching the film Boyz n the Hood.

Copyright 2010, The Brushback - Do not reprint without permission. This article is satire and is not intended as actual news.