Ontario Player of the Week March 26 – April 1

This week’s Ontario Player of the Week is awarded to one of the original most heralded prospects to come out of Canada – Minnesota Timberwolves forward and Thornhill, Ontario native Andrew Wiggins.

Wiggins, a 6’8” small forward, was tracked by a lot of media at a very young age coming out of Canada. Wiggins first started playing organized basketball as a 5’7” nine-year-old playing with a U10 team in Toronto. By age 14 he had already grown to 6’6” and had dunked a basketball for the first time when he was 13. He attended Vaughan Secondary School for his first two years of high school, and in his second year guided the AAAA basketball team to a 44-1 record en route to winning the OFSAA provincial championship. He transferred to Huntington Prep School in 2011 to get himself ready for the NCAA.

Wiggins has represented Canada on multiple occasions, including winning the bronze medal at both the Under-17 and Under-18 FIBA World Championships, along with participating in the 2015 FIBA Americas Championship as a qualifier for the 2016 Summer Olympics.

After averaging close to 25 points per game over his two years at Huntington Prep, Wiggins announced that he would re-classify into the recruiting class of 2013, and was ranked #1 just ahead of Jabari Parker by ESPN. He was named the Naismith Player of the Year, Gatorade National Player of the Year and Mr.Basketball USA and was given the honor of being the top rated high school basketball player by SLAM Magazine.

Wiggins had offers from many of the top schools in the NCAA, including Florida State, Kentucky, North Carolina and Duke, however decided to accept his offer to play for Kansas in the 2014 season. In his only season in college, Wiggins was named a consensus second-team All-American, first-team All-Big 12 and the Big 12 Freshman of the Year. He was teammates with Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid, however the star-studded Jayhawks couldn’t make it past the second round of the NCAA Tournament, losing to Stanford.

Wiggins was selected with the #1 overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft by the Cleveland Cavaliers, joining Anthony Bennett as the second Canadian ever selected #1 overall. Wiggins signed his rookie contract with the Cavaliers but did not play a single game with them, as he was the centerpiece in a three-team trade between Cleveland, Minnesota and Philadelphia which ultimately brought Wiggins to the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Wiggins debuted for Minnesota in 2014, averaging just under 17 points in his rookie campaign along with being named the Rising Stars Challenge MVP with a 22-point performance in the game helping his International side defeat team USA. He capped off his great first season by being awarded the NBA’s Rookie of the Year.

In October of the 2017-18 season, Wiggins signed a 5-year 148 million dollar contract extension with Minnesota, the richest contract for a Canadian in NBA history and he now has his Timberwolves in position for their first playoff appearance since 2003-04.

Tune in next week for the Ontario Player of the Week as the NBA playoffs are fast-approaching!