Returning state junior player of the year Jordin Canada from Windward of Los Angeles earned the highest grade from Harold Abend, our girls basketball recruiting analyst, to wrap up his annual Girls of Summer series.
Despite suffering a sprain of her MCL, it wasn’t surprising Canada earned the top grade for her play this summer considering the accolades she already received last season and with a scholarship to UCLA already in tow.
It wasn’t until last season’s SoCal regional final versus Mater Dei of Santa Ana, however, that this 5-foot-7 dynamo realized just how much people appreciate her game. The girls basketball community was already well aware of her talents, but in the middle of that contest (which Windward eventually won 81-71) we got a message from Alice Knox, the mother of current Detroit Pistons guard Brandon Jennings.
Knox wanted to know if Canada had a Twitter handle because it wasn’t easy to find ( @JaeeCANada ). Her son, who starred at Dominguez of Compton and famed Oak Hill Academy in Virginia before turning pro, wanted to give Canada a shout out to let her know how impressed he was with her game while watching the Time Warner telecast.
After Jennings ( @BrandonJennings ) Tweeted Canada about her 17-point, 14-assist, 5-rebound performance, the floodgates opened and she received a barrage of complimentary Tweets on her game.
“To me I thought that was a blessing,” Canada said. “I was definitely shocked when I saw him (Jennings) tweet about me, but it was more of a compliment to our team because he sat and watched our game. Not a lot of girl’s teams get that recognition from men basketball players so it was just a honor.”
