2:22Coming Wednesday and for only the next 15 years if all goes well, Timberwolves forward Andrew Wiggins and fellow rookie Jabari Parker will be linked by the shared promise of their rare talent and a history together that dates to last summer's draft and well beyond.
With dissimilar skills but very similar acclaim, they were clearly considered the best two players in NBA's June draft, when Cleveland selected Wiggins out of Kansas first overall and Milwaukee chose Duke's Parker next.
It's a pairing that, in whatever order, attracted well-versed basketball fans to AAU jamborees long before that, back when both were the most elite players in their national recruiting class.
Wolves rookie guard Zach LaVine — a member of that recruiting class himself — in a bit of hyperbole dates the two players' fate perhaps even to "grade school coming up" and says, "They were both No. 1, No. 2, just switching on and off their whole careers."
Now they are the early — maybe only — favorites for Rookie of the Year honors: Wiggins the one with more projected "upside" because of his sublime athletic ability and willingness to change games at both ends of the court, Parker the gifted scorer most scouts deem more ready to succeed in the NBA.
Wiggins answers questions about a player to whom he may always be compared as he does nearly all others, with very few words. He has known Parker much of his life, but came to understand him better when each went through the draft process together last spring.
He calls his rival a "hard worker, determined player, a great scorer" while Parker cites his season at Duke when he says, "I understand what it takes to win and be professional."
Earlier this season, Parker contorted his face much like someone just told they need oral surgery when asked about Wiggins — whom the Cavaliers traded to the Wolves for Kevin Love two months after they drafted him — and all they share whenever they meet.
