'An honor to represent Canada': Wiggins comes home for All-Star showcase
With All-Star weekend kicking off in his hometown, 2015 Rookie of the Year Andrew Wiggins chatted with theScore at Biosteel's All-Star kickoff party.
Joseph Casciaro: All-Star weekend in Toronto is kind of like the culmination of Toronto's rise as a basketball hotbed. What's it been like to be the face of that Canadian basketball boom?
Andrew Wiggins: It's a great feeling. It's just an honor to represent Canada - the whole country.
Casciaro: As a native son, when you hear people complaining about the cold this weekend, do you kind of just want to tell them to get over it?
Wiggins: It's cold a lot of places. For me, I'm from here and now I'm in Minnesota, so it doesn't really get hotter.
Casciaro: A year-and-a-half into your NBA career, is there a moment that sticks out to you, maybe with a player or meeting a celebrity, that has left you completely starstruck?
Wiggins: My first game, really, was just so surreal. Seeing the players I had just watched in the playoffs the last summer, and now I'm going up against them. That feeling is crazy.
Casciaro: What about a personal moment or an individual play that sticks out as an "I made it" moment?
Wiggins: My first basket.
Casciaro: What's the most dad-like piece of advice Kevin Garnett has given you?
Wiggins: KG has given me a lot of advice about being professional. Having a routine and following your routine.
Casciaro: Is Nikola Pekovic as scary in person as he looks to the rest of us?
Wiggins: Nah, man (laughing). He's a great guy. He's funny, and a great teammate. But on the court, he's fearless and physical.