[Drake]

A good column done on Andrew Wiggins by Bruce Arthur.

“Is there anything you wish people knew about you, Andrew?” asked a reporter.

“That I’m only 17,” he replied, with a grin that made him look younger.

Do you think it’s easy for people to forget that?

“Yeah, yeah,” he said.

For all the commodification of Andrew Wiggins, he is still charmingly unpolished off the court, all matter-of-fact. When asked if the attention is too much, he says, “Not really. It’s part of being an elite player, you get attention.” When asked what being an elite player means to him, he says, “Producing every game, entertaining the fans, and just being a hero, or role model to kids, to be able to hold your own ground against others.” When asked if he is ready for everything that comes with becoming an elite player, he says, “yeah.” When asked if he wants to be an elite player, he nods. “Mm-hm,” he murmurs.

He says Kevin Durant is his favourite player now because “KD’s 6-10, he’s unstoppable. And KD’s humble, just like me.” When asked what home-cooked meal he missed most while playing away from home in West Virginia, he says, “Rice and peas.”

“Andrew understands all of that, but he just wants to be like Kevin Durant and LeBron [James],” says Mitchell, who says his son has received in-person advice from James, Durant, and Michael Jordan. “He wants just to play. And he’s a good boy. He understands all the pitfalls, and [Andrew, himself, and Andrew's mother Marita Payne-Wiggins, the former track star] talk about everything parents should talk about. And he listens. But he has the same friends he had that he had in junior high school. I have no worries with Andrew.

Wiggins shrugs. “Yeah, but I was raised well, so I know how to handle a lot of stuff.” Left unsaid is the reality: this is his life.

As Wiggins wanders down a hallway, Canada Basketball’s Rowan Barrett watches him go. “If there was one guy you wanted in that position,” Barrett says, “it would be him.” The kid signs as he walks, poses for another picture, signs again, and the whole time he is handing out scraps of hope that people can take home, where they can wait and see if he comes true.

http://sports.nationalpost.com/2013/...ins-shoulders/