Following their NBA Championship win on Thursday night, Golden State Warriors players and coaches began to spray venom in every direction. Anyone they felt had wronged them was a target. Even those who didn’t found themselves in the crosshairs, including the Minnesota Timberwolves who received a roundabout tongue-lashing from Joe Lacob.
Discussing the impact of Andrew Wiggins, who was acquired from Minnesota in a 2020 trade, Lacob implied that all it took to unlock his talent was a better culture.
“I’ve said that from Day 1, and Steve Kerr said the same thing. He’s a prototypical wing who just played for a not-so-good team, didn’t get perhaps the best culture,” Lacob said, via The Athletic. “We thought if you put him in our situation, he could be great. He didn’t have to be 1A. You saw what he did in these playoffs. He was really, really great.”
Wiggins averaged 16.5 points and 7.5 rebounds throughout the playoffs and proved to be exactly what the doctor ordered for Golden State. Over the last three Finals games, Wiggins brought down 35 rebounds. He was a rock.
As the team celebrated on the court following their win, Lacob was even caught on camera telling Wiggins, “I’m so proud of you.”
Despite Lacob’s praise of Wiggins and his Timberwolves slight, he stopped short of saying they’d extend the contract of the 27-year-old.
“You’ll have to see what we do,” Lacob said. “We got the draft and free agency coming up. We’ll form our team for next year after a lot of discussion the next couple weeks.”
Whatever the Warriors ultimately decide to do, there’s no denying they got more out of Wiggins than the Timberwolves had prior.
