Andrew Wiggins is one of the new wave of Canadian-born basketball players infiltrating the NBA, which shouldn’t matter except as an interesting factoid. But in a conversation about the merits of the Cavaliers making a long-rumored Kevin Love trade, ESPN’s Jason Whitlock made Wiggins’ nationality matter in an inappropriate way on Keith Olbermann’s show.
ESPN analyst thinks Canadian athletes ‘don’t want it as much’
This is Jason Whitlock’s justification for why the Cavaliers should trade Andrew Wiggins for Kevin Love. It is absurd.
“I don’t want to attach this to LeBron’s camp, [but] Andrew Wiggins is from Canada. Canadian athletes, I think, among NBA players and NBA people, perhaps don’t want it as much as even some of the Europeans and certainly the American players,” Whitlock said.
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This is a common (and probably unfair) criticism of Wiggins’ game without the jingoism. It’s a tremendously unfair critique when attached to a whole nationality of players. Steve Nash was Canadian, too, and he overcame physical limitations and a background well off the basketball beaten path to emerge as a two-time MVP. Did he not want it enough?
The irony: as Olbermann pointed out later, Wiggins is only half Canadian. Mitchell Wiggins, Andrew’s dad, is an American who actually played in the NBA.
Of course, it’s one thing for Whitlock to think this; it’s another for NBA personnel to agree. Whitlock semi-attributed some of his comments to “smart NBA people,” which is doubly concerning. Perhaps they have administered highly advanced psychological tests to prospective prospects that yielded statistically relevant results over a long period of time to prove their point. Alternatively, they might also be stereotyping against the country that has produced the last two No. 1 overall picks.
I’m going with the latter.
