Andrew Wiggins knows what is coming. And for a rookie he has done a very good job of staying on message.
“I let my agent and my support system handle that, I just love playing the game of basketball and I know the NBA is a business,” Wiggins said to a handful of media members including PBT in Las Vegas for the final days of NBA Summer League.
Back then the deal was still in the negotiations/rumor phase, now it is agreed to — Andrew Wiggins, Anthony Bennett and a first round pick for Kevin Love — and the two sides (plus the Philadelphia 76ers, moving Thaddeus Young to Minnesota for Anthony Bennett) are just waiting for Wiggins 30-day moratorium after signing his rookie deal to be up Aug. 23.
He’s still saying basically the same things now, according to the Associated Press.“Whatever happens is out of my control,” he said. “I’m not worrying about it right now.”
Surrounded by more than a dozen reporters and nine television cameras at a promotional event at his former grade school in suburban Toronto, Wiggins acknowledged that life as a first overall pick has brought him extra attention.
“There’s more eyes on me, more criticizing, stuff like that,” he said.
What else is he going to say? He’s handled this entire situation as gracefully as one could.
Wiggins is going from playing for a potential contender to a rebuilding team in Minnesota — one with some nice young talent in himself, Ricky Rubio, Zach LaVine, Chase Budinger, Gorgui Dieng and Nikola Pekovic. Still, that is a team with a lot of growing and building still to do. And Wiggins just keeps saying the right things about just wanting to play basketball.
On the bright side, being from Toronto, the Minneapolis winters shouldn’t be a shock to the system.