Kansas Jayhawks coach Bill Self believes that No. 1 overall pick Andrew Wiggins wanted to be traded for the sake of developing into a dominant player in the NBA.
Self speaking at his basketball camp in suburban Kansas City on Sunday and said that he spoke to Wiggins and he believes the former Kansas star wants to pave his own path.
"When all this trade stuff started, I talked to Andrew and Andrew told me, 'I hope I get traded,'" Self said. "And I'm like, 'No you don't.' And he said, 'Coach, I do. It's better for me, knowing my personality and what I need to do, to go somewhere where I'm forced to be something as opposed to going in there where they're going to be patient with me and I'm going to be a piece.’”
Self believes that this is the right mentality for the rookie and that he needs to learn to be “the guy” and being a piece behind LeBron James could hurt his development.
"Even though in a weird way everybody would love the opportunity to play with LeBron because you're guaranteed winning," Self said, "for the longevity of his career, he needs to develop that mindset to be the guy, for him to be great, and I think being Minnesota will help him do that.”
"I think he's handled everything great. He's excited," Self said. "I think the whole thing that's been blown out of proportion a bit is that he's been in limbo. He's known since the summer that he'd be traded. It's OK. In some ways he's looking forward to going to Minnesota.”
Wiggins, Anthony Bennett and a first-round pick are to be traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Kevin Love, but the trade cannot be official until August 23. Wiggins was an honorary speaker at Self’s camp Sunday and turned down the opportunity to speak about his status.
[ESPN]
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