Before his inaugural appearance in the arena that helped spawn his love for the game, Timberwolves rookie Andrew Wiggins and fellow Toronto-area native and teammate Anthony Bennett had an audience with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Dozens from Wiggins' inner circle -- including family members, childhood friends and his first high school coach, Gus Gymnopoulos -- were among the 19,800 fans at the Air Canada Centre for his first homecoming. So were regional hoops pioneers Leo Rautins (a TSN basketball analyst) and Jamaal Magloire. Wiggins' introduction was unceremonious enough, a quick mention over the Canadian hoops Mecca's public address system and nothing more, but the significance was earmarked when fans gathered outside Minnesota's hotel to seek an autograph, about 30 reporters showed up at morning shootaround to ask the 20-year-old questions, and cheers erupted whenever he touched the ball during the first half.
"It feels great," Wiggins said before scoring 15 points and pulling down three rebounds in the Wolves' 105-100 loss Wednesday night. "It's an honor to play back home where I grew up at."
In his home country, the hoops-loving locals revere him as the poster child of the game's development within its borders. Wiggins loves it there, too, wearing his Maple Leaf pride on his sleeve and hoping to someday lead the Canadian national team to international glory.
Some speculate when his rookie contract's up in four or five years, these same Raptors will make a run at him. But Wiggins did the smart thing and put that notion to rest, for now, when asked about it Wednesday morning.
"I love Minnesota," Wiggins said. "They treat me nice out there. So I plan to be there a very, very, very long time."
Truth is, the Wolves (14-53) -- in their own, exceptionally maladroit way -- have been as good for Wiggins as he's been for the Twin Cities. Here, he says, he can be the focal point, and injuries to almost the entire roster at some point this year have accelerated his path toward that pinnacle.
Since Dec. 1, Wiggins' 36.9 minutes per game rank second in the NBA behind Jimmy Butler and Kyrie Irving. His 15-plus points per game lead all rookies. He continues to defend the opposition's top scorer -- LeBron James, James Harden, and Wednesday night, Kyle Lowry (until Lowry left with a back contusion in the third quarter) -- and, at times, hold his own.
And on a team that dressed eight players for the third night in a row and has been ravaged by injuries this season, Wiggins hasn't missed a game yet.
"Andrew played 30-plus games" in his one season at Kansas, acting head coach Sam Mitchell said. "We did that in two months. This is three seasons all rolled into one for him, college seasons, and for him to have not missed a game tells you a lot about his makeup, because at a time when teams rest guys and know how to take care of themselves, he hasn't needed a game off. So it's a huge thing if he can play 82 games this year."
On this night, fans of the Raptors (41-27) seemed just as occupied with their own club's current playoff push as they were with the newest face of Canadian basketball. After a brief ovation during starting lineup announcements, they cheered Wiggins intermittently while watching the Eastern Conference's third-place team hold off the West's bottom-most club.
Point guard Ricky Rubio returned from a two-game absence, but big man Justin Hamilton sat out with a severe headache, leaving coach and president Flip Saunders' "Super 8" -- this time, Rubio, Wiggins, Adreian Payne, Chase Budinger, Gorgui Dieng, Kevin Martin, Zach LaVine and Lorenzo Brown -- intact.
Not even Saunders was on the sideline Wednesday, taking the day to be with his ailing father in Cleveland. Saunders is expected to rejoin the team for Thursday's game at New York.
That left Mitchell to coach against the club he helmed from 2004-08.
It would've been a dual on-court return had Bennett not missed a 13th consecutive game with a sprained ankle. Like Wiggins, Bennett grew up in the Toronto area and spent many a night in the upper bowl of the "ACC" watching Vince Carter help turn the area into a pseudo-hoops hotbed.
"It's been disappointing not to play the whole month, pretty much," said Bennett, who made his Air Canada Centre debut against the Raptors last season as a member of the Cavaliers, "but coming back home, a lot of family, friends, fans in Toronto, it's always depressing (to sit out)."
Former Wolves coach Dwane Casey, meanwhile, improved to 5-0 against the only other NBA team he's coached.
Of all the Wolves-Toronto tie-ins, only Wiggins can claim status as the No. 1 role model for Canadian kids more interested in round goals than square ones. Thanks to Carter, the Raptors, Steve Nash and a steady stream of immigrants to the Great White North the game has grown there considerably in the past two decades; when this season began, 12 Canadians were on opening-day NBA rosters, and 28 more are playing in this year's NCAA tournament.
And the son of former NBA player Mitchell Wiggins and former Canadian track-and-field star Marita Wiggins (formerly Payne) is the most ballyhooed product of "the boom," as Carter himself calls it.
"I think he's allowed these kids to dream and think about 'what if,'" Sam Mitchell said.
Of course, given Minnesota's history of losing superstars to more favorable markets (Kevin Garnett and Kevin Love), some of Wiggins' countrymen consider it a foregone conclusion he'll someday return to his native land.
But based on what Wiggins offered Wednesday morning, that's not a consideration at this point. He's not even ready to commit publicly to joining Bennett and Team Canada for this summer's Pan-American Games in Toronto.
The "ultimate goal," Wiggins says, is claiming rookie of the year honors. He'll map out his summer when it gets closer.
Then come even further-reaching objectives, namely snapping Minnesota's 11-year playoff drought and eclipsing the lofty ceiling set above Wiggins since he was in eighth grade.
So far, so promising.
"He's just been a real killer since I've met him," said Bennett, who played in the same Canadian AAU organization, CIA Bounce, as Wiggins. "That's way back, Team Canada, AAU. He just has something special about him. This year, he showed it out. Hopefully, he gets rookie of the year."
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