Wiggins shrugs off hype in first NBA game back home
TORONTO — The spotlight follows Andrew Wiggins like a shadow these days.
But the 20-year-old insists he’s grown accustomed to the hype and hoopla that comes with being both the NBA’s No. 1 draft pick and Canada’s biggest basketball star.
It’s obvious in the way he’s been playing.
“When you’re thought of as the face of the franchise, that’s a huge responsibility,” said Sam Mitchell, an assistant with Minnesota.
“It’s tough, especially when you’re 19. He goes at his pace, he doesn’t get too high, he doesn’t get too low, it’s amazing how he takes it. I can’t tell you how he feels inside, but from what I’ve seen and how he reacts and how he plays, it just doesn’t faze him. . . . he understands all the hoopla, but he puts it in a box and sets it to the side at 7 o’clock, and he goes out and plays.”
Wiggins played his first NBA game at the Air Canada Centre on Wednesday, in the Timberwolves’ 105-100 loss to the Toronto Raptors. He finished with 15 points in 32 minutes, his much-anticipated appearance derailed by some early foul trouble.
Wiggins had received a warm ovation when he was introduced in Minnesota’s starting lineup. Prime Minister Stephen Harper was even in attendance, posing for a pre-game photo with the young star from Vaughan, Ont.
“It’s been great, from the time I landed, I went back and saw my grandma and my aunts, it was a great time for me, even seeing the Prime Minister,” Wiggins said. “Not a lot of people can say they met the Prime Minister.
“He just said he’s proud of us, me and AB [Anthony Bennett] both, keep doing what we’re doing, keep representing Canada.”
He’s averaging 15.7 points a night and has won all four rookie of the month awards thus far, blowing away pre-season expectations of the young Canadian and putting him on pace to win rookie of the year honours — his goal for the season. He has shone in the biggest games, putting up 27 points against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, the team that drafted him first overall only to turn around and trade him to Minnesota.