Former KU standout Wiggins is NBA champion: ‘I just wanted to prove everyone wrong’
On Thursday night, a reporter prefaced a question to newly crowned NBA champion Andrew Wiggins of the Golden State Warriors bluntly: “There’s been a lot of negative stuff said about you over your career …”
Asked seconds later what it feels like “to prove all those people wrong,” the 27-year-old, eighth-year pro, who had just scored 18 points, grabbed six rebounds and dished five assists in the Warriors’ 103-90 Finals-clinching victory over the Celtics at Boston’s TD Garden, responded: “It’s a feeling I can’t describe. Every day, that stuff is motivating. It put fire in my eyes and I just wanted to prove everyone wrong. Now I’m a world champion,” added Wiggins, the overall No. 1 pick in the 2014 NBA Draft out of the University of Kansas.
He averaged 18.8 points, 8.8 rebounds and 2.2 assists in the six-game Finals while also playing stout defense against Boston wing Jayson Tatum.
“Everyone is going to have something to say regardless, but now when they have something to say, they have to say I’m a world champion, too,” Wiggins stated in the interview room after Thursday’s clincher. The Warriors won the series four games to two.
The 6-foot-7 former Minnesota Timberwolves guard/forward was playing in just the second playoff series of his career (the Timberwolves were eliminated in the first round in 2017-18). He said he was “ready to celebrate” after playing a key role for the Warriors, a team he joined via trade with 12 games left in the 2019-20 season.
“Man, it feels good,” he said. “It feels amazing. You put in so much work, so much time to make it here, and the end result is becoming a champion. So, there’s nothing like it.”
Supporting cast strong at Golden State
Wiggins, who never averaged below 16.9 points a game in his first 5 1/2 years in the league with the Timberwolves, obviously had an improved supporting cast with veteran-laden Golden State.
The Warriors’ veterans seemingly brought out the best in Wiggins, who came up especially big in Game 4 (17 points, 16 rebounds) and Game 5 (26 points, 13 rebounds).
“They called me. They challenged me every day, all the vets,” Wiggins said of Finals MVP Steph Curry, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson and Andre Iguodala.
“Every time I stepped on the court, they challenged me, and that’s motivational. Those are future Hall of Famers. Whenever they tell me to do something, the challenge is I just want to get it done. I proved (a lot) to them and earned their respect.”
Thompson — he missed the 2019-20 and 20-21 seasons because of knee and Achilles injuries — praised Wiggins after the Warriors wrapped up the franchise’s fourth NBA title in eight years.
“That man made my life so easy. I used to have to do his job and I’m looking at him like, ‘That is exhausting, bro. You’ve got to get buckets and guard the best player? That’s crazy.’’’
Known for his his all-around game in his one season at KU — he averaged 17.1 points, 5.9 rebounds and 1.9 assists in 2013-14 — Wiggins had not emerged as a defensive presence in the pros until late this season.
He could play ‘D’ in college
Speaking of defense ...
“For us I thought Andrew was the best defender in our league as far as guarding his man,” KU coach Bill Self said recently in discussing Wiggins’ progress through the years on the Field of 68 podcast. “Now he’d never run through a pass, never do those things. But as far as locking in, I felt he took a lot of pride in that in college.”
Wiggins was KU’s leading scorer (Perry Ellis averaged 13.5 points and Joel Embiid 11.2) on a 2013-14 KU team that went 25-10 overall. The Jayhawks won the Big 12 regular-season title before falling in the second round of the Big 12 tournament and second round of the NCAAs.
“Wiggs was the best player in our league. A lot of people voted before the game against West Virginia where he got 40 (41 points in 92-86 loss at West Virginia on March 8, 2014),” Self said, adding that Wiggins “finished second (but) he should have been player of the year in our league. That’s not a knock to Melvin (Ejim, Iowa State who was voted the league’s top player after averaging 18.2 ppg, 8.6 rpg). Wiggs was the best player on the best team.”
The 2013-14 Jayhawks won the conference regular-season title by two games over Oklahoma.
“Wiggs’ ego was so small for a guy like that, a guy ranked as high as him,” Self said of the country’s No. 1-ranked high school player in the recruiting Class of 2013 out of Huntington (West Virginia) Prep.
“He just wanted to fit in,” the KU coach said during an appearance on former KU forward Landen Lucas’ podcast. “Many times we tried to (tick) Andrew off as best we could to try to get him in that extra gear. He felt like, ‘If we’ve got the game won, why do I need to score? Let someone else score.’ That was his mindset.”
Polite player had ‘a trigger’
About the demeanor of the Toronto, Canada native, Self continued: “Every time he’d knock somebody down he’d say, ‘Pardon me. Excuse me.’
“He didn’t do that often, but he was the nicest, sweetest kid ever. I’d try to (tick) him off. He did have a trigger you could get to. He had a trigger after Marcus Smart and those guys beat us. He had a trigger in which he could come back and get 30 on them.”
After fellow future NBA player Marcus Smart scored 21 points (to Wiggins’ 15) in Oklahoma State’s 72-65 victory over KU in Stillwater, the Jayhawks bounced back to beat the Pokes 77-70 in the first round of the Big 12 tourney behind Wiggins’ 30 points and eight rebounds (Smart had 14 points in that one).
“He had a trigger he could get to when we went to play West Virginia and he had all his Huntington Prep people come to the game. They drove up for the game and you know what? He goes and gets 41,” Self said.
“There were the games he would just fit in and float, do all that stuff. He was the most fun, sweetest kid to coach but he drove me a little nuts because I couldn’t get him consistently to have that assassin mentality.”
An injury to fellow one-and-done player Embiid kept the 7-footer out of the NCAA Tournament, perhaps leading to KU bowing out in Round 2 vs. Stanford.
“That team we had I felt could have won it all,” Self said on Lucas’ podcast. “I thought we had the best big in the country, hands down, the most dominant player in the country (Embiid, currently a star with Philadelphia 76ers). We had Wiggs on the perimeter (plus Ellis, Wayne Selden, Tarik Black). We lost a lot when ‘Jo’ went down.
“It was great to have them together,” Self added of having Embiid and Wiggins on the same team at KU. “Both are unbelievable human beings. Both were unbelievably coachable. Both gave themselves up for the betterment of this place. I’ve got a picture in my office with two guys together laughing at our basketball banquet at the end of the season that collectively have made about $800 million. That’s pretty good too.”
Wiggins truly had stellar postseason
Of Wiggins’ maturation into an All-Star for the first time this season and then a world champion, Self said: “You can make a case he’s been Golden State’s second-best player in the playoffs. No doubt who No. 1 is (Curry) and it’s been a distant second but you can make a case he has been that. I’m really happy for him.”
Wiggins, who will turn 28 on Feb. 23, is young enough to potentially claim multiple NBA crowns and All-Star appearances as a late-blooming pro. The Warriors may not be finished, either. Curry is 34 and Thompson and Green are 32.
But whatever comes next, Wiggins likely will never forget title No. 1.
“Man it’s amazing. Just to have my family here to experience all the stuff with me, it’s been great,” he said after Thursday evening’s game. “My daughter (who attended Game Six with other family members) … she’s not going to remember this. She’s only 3. But these are memories for a lifetime. I’m so thankful for that.”
