On Oct. 13, the Timberwolves concluded one of many ordinary preseason practices on the court inside the Life Time Fitness connected to Target Center. A few players lingered to shoot extra free throws in the early afternoon before hitting the showers.
Their days were over; for Andrew Wiggins, though, it was just beginning.
Post-practice, Wiggins casually slipped away in his practice gear and came back out wearing a full Wolves uniform. He was then whisked to an adjacent court, half of which had been transformed into a makeshift studio, complete with green screen.
A crew of at least 25 members was waiting for him, set to film a commercial for adidas and the NBA that began airing recently for the NBA Swingman jersey.
The ad campaign also features other NBA players, but in Wiggins' shoot, the concept is that he is so busy that he needs a body double or "swingman" to fill in for him during parts of his commercial shoot (fitting, it would seem, since the commercial shoot itself occupied time from No. 1 overall pick that none of his teammates had to spend).
The punchline is that his "swingman" didn't realize that Wiggins had been traded from the Cavaliers to the Wolves. After Wiggins arrived on the scene, he was prepped on the concept and had a good laugh about it.
Then he was asked to stand in front of the green screen while dribbling the ball, spinning the ball and generally doing things that a basketball player straight from central casting would be asked to do. (At one point, there was a panic because nobody could locate a second basketball in a gym that should be full of them).
Later, he was whisked back to the Wolves' practice gym, where he shot baskets as the crew set up for the big finish.
In talking briefly to Wiggins during the shoot, he said things like this don't faze him because he's been in the spotlight for so long. Still, it seemed as though he was somewhere between uncomfortable and shy at times during what amounted to about a two-hour process — even as he was told with a smile by adidas folks, "This is fun. You have 40 people watching you. No big deal."
The 30-second finished product, of course, shows nothing of that hesitancy. Wiggins looks like an engaging, polished star and delivers his one line — perhaps a tip of the cap to the strange circumstance at the start of his career — with ease: "We got off to a shaky start, but I wouldn't trade my swingman for the world."
Michael Rand
