Warriors’ trio of Curry, Green and Wiggins make their mark on All-Star
weekend, even before tipoff
Andrew Wiggins, Steph Curry square off on court; Draymond Green appears
on TBS broadcast
>SAN FRANCISCO, CA – FEBRUARY 16: Golden State Warriors’ Andrew
Wiggins (22), Draymond Green (23) and Stephen Curry (30) hold their
All-Stars jerseys next to Golden State Warriors General Manager Bob
Meyers before the tipoff against the Denver Nuggets at Chase Center in
San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2022. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area
News Group)
>SAN FRANCISCO, CA – FEBRUARY 16: Golden State Warriors’ Andrew Wiggins
(22), Draymond Green (23) and Stephen Curry (30) hold their All-Stars
jerseys next to Golden State Warriors General Manager Bob Meyers before
the tipoff against the Denver Nuggets at Chase Center in San Francisco,
Calif., on Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2022. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
By EVAN WEBECK | ewebeck@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group
PUBLISHED: February 20, 2022 at 5:31 p.m. | UPDATED: February 21, 2022
at 3:55 a.m.
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2022/02/20/takeaways-from-steph-curry-draymond-green-and-andrew-wiggins-all-star-weekend/

Steph Curry and Andrew Wiggins squared off Sunday night in the NBA
All-Star Game, but the injured Draymond Green was as present as either
of them on the TBS broadcast as he continued his foray into commentating.

Green wasn’t the only one in a new position on All-Star weekend: It was
Wiggins’ first time being named to the game.

Curry has made a habit of playing in the showcase game, so he knows the
ins and outs of the whirlwind weekend. He didn’t defend his 3-point
shootout crown (Minnesota’s Karl-Anthony Towns won the event Saturday
night), but he did take note of other action that preceded the game.

- Steph and HBCUs

Inside the home locker room at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse, Curry pointed
out how strange it felt to be there, the place his opponents retired to
after so many Finals battles. Outside, the Cleveland fans reminded him
of that history — three Finals losses at the hands of Curry and the
Warriors — with a chorus of boos.

In the same building a night earlier, Howard rallied past Morgan State
to win the inaugural HBCU Classic, part of the the NBA’s initiative to
uplift athletic programs at historically Black colleges.

With increased access to larger platforms like All-Star weekend and more
funding going into the programs, Curry believes the NBA isn’t far off
from its next star coming out of an HBCU. One of the country’s top
basketball recruits in the Class of 2020, Makur Maker, initially chose
to play at Howard over traditional blue bloods but after an injury is
now playing professionally in Australia.

“Obviously it’s going to take a couple athletes to take a leap of faith
in that respect too,” Curry said. “So it’s on the program. It’s on the
people who invest in the programs to continue to support that and make
it as real an opportunity as possible. I hope (for) Morgan State and
Howard, here, playing this game, putting them on this stage and making
the spotlight as big as possible — that continues to help validate that
as well.”

- Draymond Green on TV

Draymond Green arrived at All-Star media day on Saturday with a pad on
his lower back, meant to help his posture. A problem with a disc in his
back has kept him out the past 21 games and prevented him from playing
in the All-Star Game Sunday night.

Green said he has no set target date for his return and views his
timeline as week-to-week — for what it’s worth, James Wiseman described
his timeline as day-to-day and has been more active in practice — but
the focus this weekend was posture.

“I really started to ramp my workouts up more and more. So I’ll just
continue to do that through this break and coming out of the break and
kind of see where that falls,” Green said. “Definitely feeling really
good about where I am. … But I’m not gonna rush back and try to get back
out there before I feel like I’m all the way, 100 percent right.”

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Instead of playing in the All-Star game Sunday night, Green joined the
TBS telecast as part of a new on-air role with Turner Sports that he is
starting during his playing career.

Before appearing on the broadcast Sunday night, Green put on his pundit
cap on a couple occasions during his question-and-answer session the day
before.

The MVP front-runner? “If I had a vote and the season ended today,”
Green said. “DeMar DeRozan.”

The Bulls guard scored at least 35 points in each of his final eight
games before the All-Star break and is averaging 33.1 per game over the
past month, while Chicago holds a tie with Miami for first place in the
East.

“Obviously he’s on an incredible run right now, but he’s been incredible
all year,” Green said. “When you look at the sentiment that was around
him and everybody kind of disrespected what he’s done all these years,
for him to take that disrespect and not only continue to play great but
take it up even another level, I think is incredible. And the way he’s
led that team. They been through a lot of injuries – probably more
injuries than anybody this season. And yet they’re still right there at
the top of the East. I think a huge part of that has been his consistent
level of play.”

The season’s biggest surprise? “If I had to pick a surprise,” Green
said. “I think it’s Cleveland.”

The Cavs’ young trio of Evan Mobley, Darius Garland and Jarrett Allen
won the Skills Challenge on Saturday night and have accelerated
Cleveland’s rebuild enough to have the Cavs in fourth place in the East.

“I don’t think anyone expected them to be this good. They’re really
putting it together,” Green said. “They’re finding a young star in
Darius Garland who’s leading the charge. Evan Mobley. They have a great
young group of guys. They’re putting it together now but they’re going
to be good for years to come.”

Green is clearly setting himself up for a post-playing career job on
television — watch out, Chuck — but he doesn’t want to limit himself, he
said.

“It’ll definitely make up some part of what I do post-career, but I’m
not sure that I’ll do just one thing when I’m done playing. I have quite
a few interests.”

- Andrew Wiggins’ active weekend

For Curry, this was his eighth time at All-Star weekend. It was the
fourth for Green.

But the experience was all new to Andrew Wiggins, who was voted a
starter and made the first All-Star appearance of his career.

During his rookie of the year campaign in 2014, Wiggins won MVP of the
Rising Stars challenge, but the former first overall pick hadn’t made it
back to another All-Star weekend — until this year.

“As an All-Star you view things differently,” Wiggins said. “You look
around and you’re amongst the best of the best. So you’ve just got to be
thankful and cherish the moment.”

The weekend started for Wiggins by acting as a 6-foot-7 prop for
teammate Juan Toscano-Anderson to dunk over en route to a second-place
finish in the slam dunk contest. During warm-ups Sunday, Wiggins was the
top half-court shooter on Team Durant, earning some attention from Joel
Embiid.

“Bro, you went to Golden State and you turned into a Splash Brother
too,” Embiid told Wiggins, who’s shooting a career-best 41.4% from
3-point distance this season.

For Wiggins, the first All-Star experience of his career comes in the
city where it all began, if ever so briefly. The Cavaliers drafted
Wiggins No. 1 overall in 2014 but traded him to Minnesota before he
could ever suit up in Cleveland.

“It’s full circle,” Wiggins said. “Cleveland was the first team to give
me a chance. They drafted me. So it’s great that everything ended up
right back here.”

--
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.