We’ve come to expect this sort of thing from Andrew Wiggins.
The reigning NBA Rookie of the Year is one of the best athletes in basketball. He’s 6’8 with wiry strength, possesses incredible lateral agility, and boasts the quick-twitch explosion that’s normally reserved for diminutive guards. As his award-winning 2014-15 season wore on, Wiggins made putting brave potential shot-blockers on posters a habit. This coast-to-coast jam against the Los Angeles Lakers back in April, for instance, is eerily similar to his vicious slam in Canada’s win over Panama on Monday.
What’s most notable about the play above, then, is the reaction of the usually mild-mannered Minnesota Timberwolves wing to his aerial theatrics. The biggest knock on Wiggins entering the 2014 draft – and the one to which many detractors still cling – is a supposed lack of consistent intensity, or the “killer instinct” that sets Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant apart from similarly gifted luminaries like Tracy McGrady and Vince Carter.
See that little stare-down and smile from the Canadian sensation immediately following his dunk? We’ve always known Wiggins had the requisite combination of physical abilities to pull off highlight-reel plays; what’s been the question is whether or not he has the disposition to make them as often as he should.
Frankly, the 2015 FIBA Americas hasn’t answered it as affirmatively as this poster suggests. Despite averaging 15.8 points per game – the fourth-highest mark in the tournament – on 52.4 percent from the field and 38.9 percent from beyond the arc, Wiggins has still yet to assert himself on either end of the floor with the regularity that would put those long-held concerns about his competitive zeal to bed for good. His emotional approach to the game is clearly still evolving, right along with his body and skill-set.
But that’s to be expected of a 20-year-old, right? And if ferocious dunks like this one, his subsequent taunt, and overall play for Canada over the past week is any indication, it seems like only a matter of time until Wiggins grows into the full-fledged superstar the basketball world has always known he could be.
[Via FIBA]
