Andrew Wiggins is known for his quiet but deadly behavior on the basketball court, never one to show much fire on the floor.
His playing ability tends to speak for itself, and his double performance in the 2022 NBA Finals cemented his status as one of the Warriors’ top contributors without having to say much.
But there was a moment during Golden State’s championship run when Wiggins used his voice, and the words he spoke let teammate Andre Iguodala know the 27-year-old meant business when he stalked. It was their final game with the Boston Celtics.
On the latest episode of Iguodala’s “Point Forward” podcast with his co-host Evan Turner and Wiggins as guests, the Warriors veteran recalled a moment before the team’s championship-clinching Game 6 where a deliberate response from the small forward let him know they had it in the bag.
“Coming into Game 6, that’s what I wanted to ask you,” Iguodala told Wiggins. “We’re in training before game 6, and I asked you – because I’m taking the temperature. The reason why I talk so much and am so present in the locker room, I’m just trying to check the temperatures , and it has to be organic and it has to be authentic. So I really have to care about you to ask you a question, so I have to get to know my guys.
“But I asked you, I said, ‘Wiggs, I think we have to win tomorrow.’ And the way you looked at me and said, ‘We have to win tomorrow,’ I just said to Evan earlier, ‘Brother, when Wiggs said that, I’m like, we’re good.’
Wiggins’ response was indicative of Golden State’s killer instinct heading into Game 6 up three games to two with a chance to close the series and win the team’s fourth championship in eight seasons.
The team had fought back from an earlier two-to-one deficit in the best-of-seven series, and Wiggins explained his mentality — and his own — to Iguodala on the podcast.
“It was just knowing that we had one game left, you know. One game away,” Wiggins said. “If we can do it one more time, I can call myself a champion. I wasn’t going to let anything get in the way.”
RELATED: Wiggins’ perfect joke on why rebounding went up in the playoffs
As Dub Nation knows, Wiggins capped off his All-Star regular season with a spectacular playoff run that would have seen him claim Finals MVP, had it not been for a man named Steph Curry. . He became NBA champion for the first time after helping the Warriors win their seventh title in team history.
And in the process, he proved that a small fire behind the scenes can manifest in a big way on the pitch.
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