BROOKLYN

Is Andrew Wiggins coming out of his shell as he morphs into an NBA star in front of everyone’s eyes? Not so much, say his NBA pals.

Wiggins, the Vaughan, Ont., native who was named MVP of the Rising Stars Challenge on Friday night and is on his way to the rookie of the year award, loves playing basketball and is quite fine making a ton of money off of his natural gifts. But the fame part and the spotlight that comes with it? Well, that is a necessary evil, but certainly not something Wiggins embraces.

When this corner asked his Minnesota Timberwolves teammate Gorgui Dieng if he thought Wiggins would compete in the slam dunk competition at home in Toronto next season after declining to participate on Saturday night, Dieng said, “I don’t think so. Wigg is too shy.

“If you would look to him, he don’t even want to be here,” said the big man from Senegal who has the joie de vivre and outward personality that is a polar opposite of that of his friend.

“That’s the person he is. He’s too shy and he don’t want to be around a lot of people. That’s just him,” Dieng said.

This is nothing new, Wiggins has been considered a phenom-in-waiting since he was 13 years old and has actually grown far more comfortable with the bright lights since attending Kansas for a year and finding his way in the NBA these past four months.

Wiggins has always played better when somebody has provided him with a push and in Dieng, he might just have the kind of teammate who can prod him into living up to his immense potential.

He does it during the regular season and he even did it on Friday night, when their World team took on Team USA.

“I think he don’t play. I think he didn’t play up (to) his potential (early in that game),” Dieng said.

“I was getting on him to tell him like, ‘you need to play harder, because you were just running around in the first half.’

“He’s quiet with everyone. Sometimes I make fun of him, just to try to get him going, but that’s who he is.”

But when he gets going, he is something to see. Wiggins has emerged as Minnesota’s star, the go-to guy and has embraced it, averaging 19.8 points on 47% shooting in 17 January contests, far above the 13 points on 40% shooting he had been averaging the rest of the year.

“He’s going to be great,” said Shabazz Muhammad, another Wolves teammate who went up against Wiggins for a night on Friday.

“I think at the beginning of the year, he was trying to find his identity, especially with our team. It was kind of like he was shy with our team too, and then he really embraced it. He’s starting to get comfortable and you guys can see it on the court.”

Alvin Gentry, the coach of Team USA certainly saw it. He saw so much, in fact, that he was already angling for a rule change post-game.

“I look at a guy like Wiggins and his potential is unlimited,” Gentry said.

“I also would like to say that I think we’ve got to rearrange this game; I think it should be North America against the World. And then that way we get Canada. If we get Canada, we have Wiggins on our team.”

Gentry was half-joking, but he was at least a bit envious of Kenny Atkinson, who coached the World team.

“What a fantastic talent,” Atkinson raved.

“It’s like, ‘wow,’ you can see you can really see the difference, the talent level. You know, we’re in the NBA everyday, and we see a lot of talented players. But sometimes you can see the guys that really can surprise you. And he’s one of those guys.”

Most agree that Wiggins will be an all-star staple going forward. The only question is whether he will continue to strive to reach that immense potential.

Luckily for Wiggins, he has Dieng to get on his case, as well as head coach Flip Saunders.

“He’s really hard on us and that’s something that we really need as a young team,” Muhammad said.

“(But) he lets us develop. He lets us figure things out and I think that’s going to help us in the long run.”

ON THE RISE

Andrew Wiggins seems to be finding his game after adapting to the NBA.

GamesPPGFG%

Oct. 27.0.429

Nov. 1312.3.399

Dec. 1514.6.409

Jan. 1719.8.471

WHO WOULD WIN A DUNK OFF?

BROOKLYN — If Andrew Wiggins decided to take part in next year’s Slam Dunk contest in Toronto against teammate Zach LaVine, who would win?

It is a question many people wonder about, especially since the Wolves rookies are widely considered the two best young show-stoppers in the NBA.

Teammate Shabazz Muhammad tried to plead the fifth, before indicating that LaVine would probably be his pick.

“Yeah, I mean, it’s crazy, because Wiggins jumps like Zach but Wiggs doesn’t really like to do the stylish dunks like Zach has,” Muhammad told the Toronto Sun on Friday after the Rising Stars Challenge.

“Zach likes that, he has a swag where he likes to do the stylish dunks. Wiggs just likes to get up, have his head at the rim (to show that he can do it), but still dunk with two hands, one hand. It’s a little different,” he said with a smile.

LaVine is a born entertainer — the heavy favourite to win Saturday’s slam dunk contest had said beforehand that he intended to get NBA fans who had mostly tuned out the dunkoff in recent years engaged again. Meanwhile, it takes a lot to get Wiggins to show off, almost as if he is a bit reluctant to show the world what he can do.

“He’s really a leaper. If he wanted to, he could be in the dunk contest,” Muhammad said.

“It’s so easy how he jumps, that’s something that’s really gifted for him and his skill-set has really been improving and that’s something that I’m really impressed with.”

Wiggins decided to have a little fun in the Rising Stars game, teasing the fans with seven dunks.

“I think we gave the fans and all the people watching something to watch, some entertainment,” Wiggins said.”