How Andrew Wiggins can use Olympic inspiration to conquer the NBA

GiveMeSport.com
Mark Woods

Real success, Andrew Wiggins learnt from an early age, isn’t measured in plaudits or fame or even money in the bank.

Top choice in the NBA Draft? Just a number.

Rookie of the Year? Nice. But no more.

Some excel, others achieve. Growing up in the Toronto satellite city of Vaughan, the Minnesota Timberwolves forward heard the tales of what his mother Marita Payne had accomplished and would occasionally take a peek at the medals she’d collected during a stellar career as a sprinter.

Two Olympic silvers from the Los Angeles Games of 1984. National records over 200 and 400 metres. And a gold acquired in Edinburgh during the 1986 Commonwealth Games in the 4x400m relay.

His father Mitchell had played in the NBA, helped the USA to silver at the 1982 FIBA world championships, even appearing in the 1986 NBA Finals with the Houston Rockets before touring the world as a hoops globetrotter.

But it was mother who had the medals many exude blood sweat and tears to earn.

“She did well in the Olympics, she got silvers,” Wiggins modestly declares. “So she was always a big influence. Taught me well, gave me advice on how to approach things.”

Her chief wisdom? “Just to be who I am, play the game with love and passion. And never let god’s gift to you go to waste.”

Rangy, springy and quick, if the younger Wiggins had grown up in the UK, he would surely have been steered down the local athletics track.

He could have been a contender. “I can’t do long-distance though,” he smiles. “Back in elementary school, that was the last time I ran track. I can’t remember the times.”

Athletics' loss has been basketball’s gain and Canada’s grand expectation. Steve Nash was a trailblazer but also a fluke, the exception to the rule that insisted those from north of North America’s internal border should get their skates on if they want to transcend the continent.

From the age of 16, when Wiggins left Vaughan to attend high school in the States, he has been touted as the leader of a pack inspired by watching Vince Carter turn the Toronto Raptors into must-see TV and a generation who witnessed Nash break open a gate through which his successors could pass.

The kid who first dunked at the age of 13 was The Chosen One. The Sure Thing.

Add in Tristan Thompson of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Nik Stauskas of the 76ers, Celtics big Kelly Olynyk and Raptors darling Cory Joseph – plus others coming through – and the Maple Leaf production line is rolling nicely.

“Now we have a top division. Where I’m from Ontario, we had a great high school but there’s prep schools in the area. There’s competition,” Wiggins outlines.

“I feel like a lot of players now are getting the chance to travel a lot more. To travel to the States to get exposed. And to play basketball in front of NBA scouts. They’re getting those opportunities.”

Still only 21, he has the chance to raise the bar further for Generation C.

And in Minnesota, it is an aim widely shared in perhaps the NBA’s best repository of tantalising promise.

The high-flying but increasingly grounded Zach LaVine forms quite a front line with Wiggins, and Karl-Anthony Towns, arguably already at an All-Star level in his second year in the league.

Individually enlivening to watch but not astute enough so far to push the Timberwolves into the Western Conference elite, much more has been demanded from the trio by their head coach Tom Thibodeau.

“The challenge for all three is similar,” he evaluates. “They’re doing some extraordinary things offensively for guys their age. But the challenge is to understand how important defence is, individually and team, and to be consistent at that end.

“If you look at the teams who are successful in this league, they have that on both sides of the ball. You can’t pick and choose when you’re going to do it. You have to do it all the time.”

Averaging career-highs in points (22 per game), Wiggins will be asked to find small improvements. I know they’re there, he counters, for himself – and for Minnesota.

Real returns come not from reaching finals but from picking up something gold.

Home-schooled in such matters, Wiggins, you sense, wouldn’t have it any other way.

“It’s hard,” he adds. “The NBA is not easy. It’s hard to win. There’s a lot. But you’re playing the game you love. You can’t complain about that.”