Wiggins a slam dunk as NBA rookie of the year

MINNEAPOLIS Dressed in a Navy blue tuxedo with shiny black lapels, Andrew Wiggins certainly looked the part while collecting his NBA rookie of the year award Thursday.

The Canadian phenom looked even better on the court in his first season in the league.

Wiggins became the first Minnesota Timberwolves player to win the rookie of the year, and he did it in a landslide. The Vaughan, Ont., native received 110 of 130 firstplace votes and had 604 points in the voting. Chicago’s Nikola Mirotic finished second with 14 first-place votes and 335 points and Philadelphia’s Nerlens Noel was third.

“It means a lot to me. I know it means a lot to the organization and there’s a whole lot of history,” Wiggins said. “It should bring a lot of hope for the future of the Minnesota Timberwolves. It should give people a different look at things. This is the uprising. We’ve got a lot of young talent.”

After coming to the Timberwolves in the trade that sent Kevin Love to Cleveland, Wiggins averaged 16.9 points and 4.6 rebounds while playing all 82 games.

Wiggins was drafted No. 1 overall by the Cavaliers last summer and has been a heavily hyped prospect since he was a teenager. He lived up to that in his first year in the NBA, emerging as the new centrepiece of a franchise that hasn’t made the playoffs for 11 straight years.

“When I first came here a couple years ago, I met with (owner Glen Taylor) and said the No. 1 thing we had to do to build a franchise and develop that culture was to get a game-changing type player,” coach and team president Flip Saunders said. “Last year, Aug. 23, when we traded for Andrew Wiggins we got that type of player. And we were ready and set to go.”

Wiggins also impressed fellow Canadian Steve Nash, who retired this year after an illustrious NBA career. “Andrew had a remarkable rookie season in the NBA,” Nash, the general manager of Canada’s national team, said in a release.