National Post (National Edition)
Purpose-driven Wiggins tunes out trade rumours
Top NBA pick back home for new sponsor
VAUGHAN, ONT. • Andrew Wiggins does not concern himself with things out of his control. All he knows is that he is going to be playing in the NBA come October.
“Anywhere, any team,” the 19-year-old No. 1 draft pick said Monday. “I can play anywhere.”
He would not say where he believes that will be, whether he would stay in Cleveland to play with LeBron James and the Cavaliers, or whether he would move to Minnesota and become the guy. “Whatever God wants,” he said with a smirk. The reporters laughed, too.
Although the Cleveland Cavaliers selected Wiggins No. 1 at the NBA draft on June 26 in New York, a potential trade to acquire Kevin Love from Minnesota has been the ongoing summer drama since then. The Associated Press reported last week that the Cavaliers had agreed to deal Wiggins, fellow Canadian Anthony Bennett and a first-round pick to the Timberwolves for Love. If Wiggins is involved, the trade cannot be finished until Aug. 23. Because Cleveland signed him to a rookie contract, a monthlong moratorium on trading him took effect as per league rules.
Where he ends up is out of his control. But how he reacts to the circumstance is in his control. At least that is what his former coach has said.
Before flying back home to Toronto to make an appearance at his former elementary school on behalf of a new sponsor, Wiggins was in suburban Kansas City to take part in the basketball camp run by Bill Self, Wiggins’ coach at the University of Kansas last season. Wiggins, a guest instructor, avoided the few reporters camping out, but Self spoke for him.
“When all this trade stuff started, I talked to Andrew and Andrew told me, ‘I hope I get traded,’ ” Self said. “And I’m like, ‘No, you don’t.’ And he said, ‘Coach, I do. It’s better for me, knowing my personality and what I need to do, to go somewhere where I’m forced to be something as opposed to going in there where they’re going to be patient with me and I’m going to be a piece.’ ”
Meeting with reporters on behalf of Biosteel at Glen Shields Public School north of Toronto, Wiggins ducked the uncomfortable questions about his future and kept his answers short. “No matter what happens, I’m always concentrating on basketball,” he said.
Returning to Glen Shields brought Wiggins back to his earliest roots, to the court he grew up on. Except there were cameras this time, shooting every dunk, snapping him smiling, and he was several inches taller than the local kids, who were literally looking up to him.
One of them tried to set up Wiggins for a dunk, but he could not bounce the ball right. They tried a few more times. The director on the court asked for a few more takes. They needed the shot just right.
Between Grades 2 and 8, Wiggins would come to Glen Shields before and after class to play basketball with his friends. Now he was here making videos and signing autographs as the newest face of the Toronto sports nutrition company.
It was another endorsement deal for Wiggins, who also signed the “greatest rookie contract Adidas has ever done in basketball,” Wiggins’ agent Bill Duffy told Forbes last month.
It was not at all strange for him. “Never weird,” he said. “When I come back here, I just forget about everything. When I was playing basketball with the kids, I forgot it was a shoot. I was just having fun with the kids.”
But he admitted that his life has changed since the draft in June. “More eyes on me. More criticizing. Going to Kansas University kind of prepared me for moments like this. They treat the basketball players like rock stars. So it kind of prepared me for this transition.”
Wiggins set scoring records as a freshman at Kansas before getting drafted. He’s used to the noise. He ignores the rest. “I just listen to music,” Wiggins said.