KG4Ever wrote:I am tired of your condescending bullshit. Get over yourself. Thibs as coach did adversely impact Wiggs development and you were so up Thibs ass all these years, I am not surprised by your take. Ryan is so much better in the communication department, understanding the modern game and gaining players trust than Thibs.
KG4Ever wrote:I am tired of your condescending bullshit. Get over yourself. Thibs as coach did adversely impact Wiggs development and you were so up Thibs ass all these years, I am not surprised by your take. Ryan is so much better in the communication department, understanding the modern game and gaining players trust than Thibs.
So, I watched Andrew Wiggins post-game interview with NBA TV. Here's what I got from it.
Wiggins was asked how he reacted to the top-100 list -- the one that he was ranked 100 on.
Wiggins said that at first he just laughed at it, but the more he kept seeing it -- even when he wasn't looking for it -- the more it lit a fire in his eyes, as he put it.
I think it really hurt him inside. I think it's possible Wiggins saw the nationwide disapproval, or intentional disregard, of his game and used it as motivation. If you think about it, that's probably the first real moment of his life where he had been humbled on a national scale when it came to basketball. As a high schooler, he was named Mr. Basketball USA, Gatorade National Player of the Year, Naismith Prep Player of the Year, McDonald's All-American. People gave him the "Maple Jordan" monicker and routinely crowned him the "best prospect since LeBron James" -- a headline that is far too overused for my taste, but that's a different topic for another day. Then he gets drafted No. 1 overall and wins Rookie of the Year despite being on one of the worst teams in basketball. Fast forward several years and he's handed a max contract even though he had done next to nothing to really justify it. Nothing along his path gave him any real resistance to grow from.
And now we're here at the early stages of what could be a real breakout campaign for Wiggins. Nothing promotes growth better than some sort of internal pain. I truly believe that. If Wiggins being dissed by the basketball community was all that was needed for the lightbulb to go off with him, I would have made more phone calls myself.
If Wiggins' play remains to be anything close to what we've seen to this point, Sports Illustrated's Rob Mahoney may have saved the franchise singe-handedly without even knowing what he was doing.
Camden0916 wrote:So, I watched Andrew Wiggins post-game interview with NBA TV. Here's what I got from it.
Wiggins was asked how he reacted to the top-100 list -- the one that he was ranked 100 on.
Wiggins said that at first he just laughed at it, but the more he kept seeing it -- even when he wasn't looking for it -- the more it lit a fire in his eyes, as he put it.
I think it really hurt him inside. I think it's possible Wiggins saw the nationwide disapproval, or intentional disregard, of his game and used it as motivation. If you think about it, that's probably the first real moment of his life where he had been humbled on a national scale when it came to basketball. As a high schooler, he was named Mr. Basketball USA, Gatorade National Player of the Year, Naismith Prep Player of the Year, McDonald's All-American. People gave him the "Maple Jordan" monicker and routinely crowned him the "best prospect since LeBron James" -- a headline that is far too overused for my taste, but that's a different topic for another day. Then he gets drafted No. 1 overall and wins Rookie of the Year despite being on one of the worst teams in basketball. Fast forward several years and he's handed a max contract even though he had done next to nothing to really justify it. Nothing along his path gave him any real resistance to grow from.
And now we're here at the early stages of what could be a real breakout campaign for Wiggins. Nothing promotes growth better than some sort of internal pain. I truly believe that. If Wiggins being dissed by the basketball community was all that was needed for the lightbulb to go off with him, I would have made more phone calls myself.
If Wiggins' play remains to be anything close to what we've seen to this point, Sports Illustrated's Rob Mahoney may have saved the franchise singe-handedly without even knowing what he was doing.
If he only read this message board we could have all given you credit for it. I think these are nice platitudes and agree that probably went a long way for motivation. But his decision making has been drastically tweaked, which still points to a strategic adjustment on the court. He's top 10 in points in the paint this year. He didnt sniff that in years past. Now that you're being nice to Wiggins maybe Saunders and Rosas arent far behind.
