COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.– Wendell Carter Jr. has no problem playing a leading role on CP3, his Nike EBYL team. The 6-10, 255 pound center/forward from Pace Academy in Atlanta who established his claim as the top-ranked prospect in the Class of 2017 last month when he outplayed 6-11 Bahamian import DeAndre Ayton of Phoenix Hillcrest Academy in a showdown between two of the giants of the game.

Carter powered his way to 30 points and 16 rebounds as the defending Peach Jam champions defeated California Supreme, 76-75, in Atlanta. Ayton, generally regarded as the No. 1 prospect, finished with 19 points and 10 rebounds.

If all the world is a stage, then Carter, a suddenly aspiring actor, has earned the right to an curtain call.

Carter, who averaged 13.6 points and 8.8 rebounds and was a hero on the 2015 U.S. U16 team, which rallied from a 20 point deficit to beat Canada and win a gold medal last summer in the FIBA Tournament of the Americas in Bahia Blanca, Argentina, has been the dominant force during tryouts for the U.S. U17 World Championships team the last four days at the Olympic training center.

But his parents Wendell Carter Sr. and Kylia have produced a basketball prodigy who is capable of spreading his wings in other endeavors. His father Wendell Sr., who played for Pearl River Junior College in Mississippi, then professionally in the Dominican Republic, got his son started with his basketball career at age 3. His mother Kylia, who played four years of basketball before graduating from Ole Miss, pushed he cultural and academic side of his personality. “She wanted me to have other interests,” Carter said.

Carter is an honors student with a 3.81 GPA who is being recruited by all the traditional powers like Duke, North Carolina and Kentucky but will make his first official visit to Harvard this fall. He has also become involved in the theater. Carter took an acting class at Pace, a small private school near the governor’s mansion in Atlanta. At first he was disinterested, but soon fell in love with the theater and performed in the cast of the student production of “You Can’t Take It With You,” a Broadway comedy that first appeared in 1938 and later won an Oscar for the movie version.

Carter missed a session of EBYL to play the role of a handyman in Moss Hart and George S. Kauffman’s play about a girl from an eccentric family who loves in love with the son of a conservative banker.

“My teacher just acted me one day if I wanted to be in it. I immediately said yes. I feel like I learned a lot doing the play. ”

Carter merited the same type of applause calls as he has received on the basketball court.

Carter has never lacked of confidence, giving his performance five stars. “You never known what the future holds,” he said.”I definitely feel more comfortable acting now that I’ve done it. It’s probably something I’d do again.”

Carter’s future almost definitely will include the NBA. He is an accomplished low post player who has developed a fundamental sound game with the help of his father and personal trainer and can play every position. He has already taken his share of bowls. He was named first team All State at a junior after he led his team to the 2016 Georgia Class 2-A state championship with 30 points and 20 rebounds in the state final. He averaged 21.6 points, 13.6 rebounds and 4.5 blocks on the season.\

Carter has been a fixture at USA Basketball since the age of 15. He was one of 12 players selected for the U17 that will play in the Worlds two weeks from now in Zaragoza, Spain. The The other members of the team, which will be coached by Don Showalter and will compete in the FIBA World Championships in Spain two weeks from now– include 6-10 forward Jordan Brown of Roseville, Calif. Woodcreek; 6-6 guard Troy Brown of Las Vegas Centennial; 6-8 forward Carte-Are Gordon of St. Louis Webster Groves; 5-11 point guard Markus Howard of Findlay, Nev. Prep; 6-10 Jaren Jackson Jr. of Carmel, Ind. Park Tudor School, 6-8 forward Kevin Knox II of Tampa, Fla. Catholic; 6-4 Immanuel Quickley of Harve de Grace, Md. John Carroll School; 6-2 Collin Sexton of Mableton, Ga. Pebblebrook; 6-3 guard Javonte Smart of Baton Rouge, La. Scotlandville; 6-6 guard Gary Trent Jr. of Apple Valley, Minn.; and 6-10 Austin Wiley of Hoover, Ala. Spain Park.

The team will be coached by Don Showalter, USA Basketball’s Director of Coach Development, who has won seven gold medals in U16 and U17 international competition. Showalter is an amazing 38-0 with the U16s and U17s. But this may be his biggest challenge. The team will not be at full strength. Versatile 6-9 forward Jarred Vanderbilt from Houston Victory Prep, a starter for the U16s and the best front court wing defender on that qualifying team, is out with a foot injury; 6-7 forward Cam Reddish from Westtown,, Pa. School, who had a breakout spring and could have made the roster if he had not suffered a muscle tear in his groin Monday, the day before final cut. And steady point guard Tre Jones, Trent’s teammate at Apple Valley, has injured thumb that prevented him from attending the tryouts.

Surprisingly, the selection committee chose to take a pass on 6-4 guard Romeo Langford, the MaxPrep National Sophomore of the Year who led New Albany, Ind. to the Indiana 4A State championship and averaged 293 points, 9.3 rebounds and 3 assists, apparently passing on him for Sexton, who led he EBYL in scoring this spring with a 30 point average.

Showalter will have to rely on a nucleus of Carter, Trent (who was the MVP of the Tournament of the Americas), Knox, rapidly improving former football quarterback; and Howard, who ran the U16 team last year against Canadian and more difficult European and Australian national teams. Carter already has drawn comparisons to New Orleans center Anthony Davis, the former Kentucky star who led his team to a 2012 national championship in 2012, was a three time All Star and was a starter for the 2014 World Championship gold medalists.

Davis was 6-2 in 10th grade before his underwent a huge 8 inch growth spurt during his sophomore year in high school and he was transformed into the No. 1 prospect in 2011. Carter was 6-6 in ninth grade before he started to grow into an international youth star whose shoe size has grown from 18 to 21 and has his high school coach Demetrius Smith scrambling to find to basketball shoes that fit him. “He’s still growing,” Smith said.

When Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski visited him at his school, he felt Carter was more like one of his former players Jabari Parker, the 6-9 man child from Chicago who played one year for the Devils in 2014 before declaring for the draft.

Carter is wide open about his college selection. “I’ll probably cut down my list to 9-10 after the Peach Jam (a NIke event his team won as a sophomore),” he said. There is some speculation Carter and Trent, who have become good friends through USA Basketball, could opt to attend the same school.

Wherever Carter goes, it won’t be for long. If the comparisons are accurate, Carter could be gone in a year. Remember, Davis was the first pick in the 2012 draft. Parker was the second pick in 2014.