Andrew Wiggins got the COVID vaccine and became an All-Star
'I still wish I hadn’t gotten it. Bigger picture … I’m an All-Star. So I
feel like I made the right choice at the end of the day,' Wiggins told
the Bay Area News Group
>SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA- DECEMBER 28: Golden State Warriors’ Andrew
Wiggins #22 warms up before their NBA game against the Denver Nuggets at
the Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday, Dec. 28, 2021.
(Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
>SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA- DECEMBER 28: Golden State Warriors’ Andrew
Wiggins #22 warms up before their NBA game against the Denver Nuggets at
the Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday, Dec. 28, 2021.
(Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
By EVAN WEBECK | ewebeck@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group
PUBLISHED: February 20, 2022 at 9:34 a.m. | UPDATED: February 20, 2022
at 11:44 a.m.
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2022/02/20/andrew-wiggins-got-the-covid-vaccine-and-became-an-all-star/

In the middle of a recent interview, not long after earning his first
All-Star selection, Andrew Wiggins was interrupted by a Warriors staffer
boarding the team bus after practice.

“Who’s made you great this year?” the person teased.

“This guy never used to want to do media. Now he’s an All-Star and wants
to do media,” quipped another.

Wiggins cracked a smile, one that has come with increasing frequency
this season, and laughed. “It comes with it, bro. What do you want me to
do?”

The playful back-and-forth illustrated Wiggins’ growing comfort level in
Golden State but also the miles of ground tread — 42 wins, the first
All-Star campaign of his eight-year career, the first months of his
second daughter’s life — since the tense way the season started, with
questions over his vaccination status.

Wiggins, a quiet Canadian from the suburbs of Toronto, still has to be
persuaded to do interviews, even as he has settled in with the Warriors,
a situation he calls the best of his career. He’s been an integral piece
on the Warriors’ path to the second-best record in the NBA and been
embraced by fans so much so that their votes — 3.4 million — were the
driving force behind his All-Star nod.

It was only five months ago that Wiggins faced a future as a possible
pariah, over reservations he still has over a vaccine proven to be safe
and effective, in one of the country’s most vaccinated cities. If
Wiggins didn’t get vaccinated, a San Francisco ordinance would have
prevented him from playing inside Chase Center, potentially derailing
the Warriors’ season.

“I still wish I hadn’t gotten it,” Wiggins told the Bay Area News Group
last week. “Bigger picture, it all worked out for the best. I’m here on
the most exciting team in the league. I’m an All-Star. So I feel like I
made the right choice at the end of the day.”

>SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – FEBRUARY 12: Golden State Warriors’ Andrew
Wiggins (22) dunks the ball against Los Angeles Lakers’ Russell
Westbrook (0) in the first quarter at the Chase Center in San Francisco,
Calif., on Saturday, Feb. 12, 2022. (Shae Hammond/Bay Area News Group)

The Warriors’ 42-17 record has come as a surprise, and it certainly
would not have happened without Wiggins putting his personal
reservations aside and getting the shot. Look no further for a
counterfactual than the Brooklyn Nets, whose title aspirations are in
serious peril with Kyrie Irving still holding out over a similar mandate
in New York.

When Wiggins arrived at Chase Center for media day at the end of
September to welcome the start of the season, he had been paying
attention to Irving’s saga and weighing his own options. The room of
reporters peppered Wiggins with questions over his vaccination status,
the defining storyline of the day, and Wiggins didn’t provide many answers.

It wasn’t until a week later, after Wiggins had relented, that he
explained that his reluctance came from a family history of negative
reactions to medication and a general distrust of modern medicine. By
then, he had been thrust into the center of one the country’s most
polarizing topics.

Wiggins is a private person — he met his best friends in elementary
school and his longtime girlfriend in high school, and he lists ‘Call of
Duty’ and napping as his two favorite off-the-court activities — so he
begrudged the attention as much as the policy that put him in the position.

“I think for Andrew it was difficult to become embroiled in all that,”
coach Steve Kerr said. “Everybody who knows him loves him, loves his
demeanor, loves his approach to life, the way he treats people. He’s
just a fantastic human being. I think you throw all that in the mix, and
people move on.”

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Wiggins’ breakout season is often sourced to the huge performance he had
early this season against his former team — scoring 35 points while
missing only five shots in a Nov. 10 win over Minnesota — but it can
just as easily be traced back to the support he received from his
teammates throughout the vaccine saga.

Steph Curry was among a long list of Warriors who took public stances in
support of Wiggins, knowing full well the repercussions his decision
could have on their season.

That support, Wiggins said, acted as a trust-building exercise with his
teammates, none of whom he had shared the court with for more than 68
games — many much fewer — since being acquired in February 2020. With
Golden State, Wiggins has found a situation unlike any other in his
career, where he’s relied upon but not scapegoated, expectations are
high but not unruly and, most importantly to Wiggins, they are winning.

“You know people have your back and you have their back,” Wiggins said.
“That goes a long way on the court and off the court.”

In Minnesota, Wiggins had a reputation as an inefficient, ball-dominant
scorer on offense and a defender with all the size and skill but lacking
consistent effort. He was the first overall pick who never lived up to
his potential.

With Golden State, Wiggins has transformed into an efficient wing scorer
while matching up every night against the opponent’s top offensive
threat. This season will mark only the second playoff appearance of his
career.

>SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – JANUARY 25: Golden State Warriors’ Andrew
Wiggins #22 shoots a layup in the first quarter of their NBA game
against the Dallas Mavericks at the Chase Center in San Francisco,
Calif., on Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2022. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)

“I think with the transition from our Finals runs to where we are now,
he fit a specific role at the 3 spot,” Curry said. “He can be an amazing
defender. He can give us different looks on offense that we necessarily
didn’t have. And just allowing him to take pressure off himself in terms
of fitting into how we play and what we do.”

Surrounded by such playmakers as Curry and Draymond Green — and, now,
Klay Thompson — the Warriors have taken the ball out of Wiggins’ hands,
allowing him to hone in on his spot-up shooting while still finding
opportunities to attack the basket.

Wiggins has set career highs in true shooting percentage each season
since joining Golden State, a figure that never topped 50% in 5½ seasons
in Minnesota. This season, Wiggins has posted a career-best 56.2%
effective field goal percentage while also shooting better than 40% from
3-point distance for the first time in his career, fueled by career
highs in his frequency and success with catch-and-shoot triples.

“It’s just a matter of him buying into that process, staying consistent,
and he’s gotten better at every single opportunity since he’s been
here,” Curry said. “He obviously has a new accomplishment to show for
it. … I know we’re all crazy excited for him.”

In fact, when the All-Star starters were announced, the players’ group
chat exploded in congratulatory messages for Wiggins. It wasn’t until
half an hour later that Green remembered to congratulate Curry, too.

As the text messages were rolling in, Wiggins was sitting up in bed,
woken from a nap by his girlfriend and their daughter telling him the news.

“I thought I was dreaming,” he said. “I was just shocked. I didn’t
really know what to think or what to do.”

At the start of the season, when Wiggins was weighing his options, he
said he envisioned a number of scenarios.

Ultimately, he said, the decision to get the shot came down to a single
thought: “Man, we’ve got a chance to do something special here.”

Sunday night marks one step toward what he was talking about.

--
Evan Webeck | Reporter
Evan Webeck covers high-school sports on the field and beyond — and a
little bit of everything else — for the Bay Area News Group. A Pacific
Northwest native and graduate of Arizona State, Evan has previously
worked for The Seattle Times, MLB.com and Sports Illustrated.

Allen wrote:

> Andrew Wiggins got the COVID vaccine and became an All-Star

> By EVAN WEBECK | ewebeck@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group
> PUBLISHED: February 20, 2022 at 9:34 a.m. | UPDATED: February 20, 2022
> at 11:44 a.m.
> https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2022/02/20/andrew-wiggins-got-the-covid-vaccine-and-became-an-all-star/
>
>
>
> In the middle of a recent interview, not long after earning his first
> All-Star selection, Andrew Wiggins was interrupted by a Warriors staffer
> boarding the team bus after practice.
>
> “Who’s made you great this year?” the person teased.
>
>
> “This guy never used to want to do media. Now he’s an All-Star and wants
> to do media,” quipped another.
>
> Wiggins cracked a smile, one that has come with increasing frequency
> this season, and laughed. “It comes with it, bro. What do you want me to
> do?”
>
> The playful back-and-forth illustrated Wiggins’ growing comfort level in
> Golden State but also the miles of ground tread — 42 wins, the first
> All-Star campaign of his eight-year career, the first months of his
> second daughter’s life — since the tense way the season started, with
> questions over his vaccination status.
>
> Wiggins, a quiet Canadian from the suburbs of Toronto, still has to be
> persuaded to do interviews, even as he has settled in with the Warriors,
> a situation he calls the best of his career. He’s been an integral piece
> on the Warriors’ path to the second-best record in the NBA and been
> embraced by fans so much so that their votes — 3.4 million — were the
> driving force behind his All-Star nod.
>
> It was only five months ago that Wiggins faced a future as a possible
> pariah, over reservations he still has over a vaccine proven to be safe
> and effective, in one of the country’s most vaccinated cities. If
> Wiggins didn’t get vaccinated, a San Francisco ordinance would have
> prevented him from playing inside Chase Center, potentially derailing
> the Warriors’ season.
>
> “I still wish I hadn’t gotten it,” Wiggins told the Bay Area News Group
> last week.

That just seems like a really weird position to take. I understand not
wanting to get the shot, I suppose, but once you have, what reason is
there to feel bad about it, since there were no adverse consequences?

--Robin