Robbie Hummel looked up from his locker stall and saw more than a dozen members of the media standing nearby.

“You waiting for me?” he said.

They were.

It was a heady moment for Hummel, the rookie who nearly had his career ended by two major knee surgeries and needed a season of playing in Spain last year to work his way back to the NBA. He was a bubble player at the start of Wolves’ training camp but played solidly enough to earn a spot among the team’s top 14 players.

He got into only four of Minnesota’s first eight games, played a total of 22 minutes and scored four points.

Wednesday night, he got word 35 minutes before game time that Kevin Martin was sick and he would get his first start. Hummel played 28 minutes, went 4 for 6 in shots from the field and was 2 for 2 from three-point range in the first quarter. He totaled 10 points in the game.

“He did great,” coach Rick Adelman said. “He does all the little things you don’t notice at all: He makes open shots, but he … was always in the right spot defensively. He is just kind of a glue guy. He doesn’t need to do anything to help the team because he does all the little things that people don’t notice.”:

Hummel was asked for his definition of “a glue guy.”

“It’s been something that I’ve been labeled since I was in high school,” he said. “Just somebody that does anything for the team to win — makes the extra pass, makes an open jump shot, rebounds, plays defense, just kind of do whatever they need you to do.”

Hummel admitted it has been a long road from his much-acclaimed early career at Purdue through the knee injuries and playing in Europe to finally getting a starting slot for an NBA game.

“It’s crazy how the NBA works like that,” he said. “I’ve said this a bunch of times, but opportunity is everything here. You’ve just got to wait for that opportunity and try to seize it.”