K-pop and Wiggs

Starters for the 2022 NBA All-Star Game had been announced last week and while usual names were revealed to start, one player raised eyebrows.

The selection process for the All-Star starters involves a combination of 50% fan votes, 25% coming from NBA players and 25% from the media.  All 30 NBA coaches then select the next 14 players as the reserves. The two highest vote getters from the East and the West become the team captains, in this year’s case, Lebron James (Team LeBron) and Kevin Durant (Team Durant).

From the 14 reserves selected by the coaches, James and Durant will alternately pick 7 players regardless of conference affiliation to complete their roster.  James picks first because he’s the highest vote getter.

Back to the eyebrow-raising player.

Picked number 1 overall by Cleveland during the 2014 Draft that included Joel Embiid (#3), Julius Randle (#7), Zach LaVine (#13), Nikola Jokic (#41) and Jordan Clarkson (#46), Andrew Wiggins was traded after two months to Minnesota in exchange for Kevin Love. He was named 2014-2015 ROY averaging almost 17 points per game playing all 82 games.  In the middle of the 2019-2020 season, in a deal that involved D’Angelo Russell, Wiggins was sent to Golden State.

As a Warrior, Wiggins is shooting an 18.2 clip, second in points production to Warrior King Stephen Curry (25.7ppg).  His numbers are not extraordinary but with that kind of production, an All-Star consideration is not exactly questionable.

So why the fuss?  Blame it on K-Pop.

Thai-born BamBam of the K-pop group GOT7, who was recently named by GSW as their global ambassador, urged his fans to vote for Curry immediately when voting began on Christmas Day.   This led to Curry getting the second highest votes overall next to LeBron.

Then came the love for Wiggins.  BamBam fanatics unexpectedly gave Wiggs the third highest fan votes among Western Conference frontcourt players.

K-pop fans probably are the most loyal believers of boy bands and when their idols ask them to tweet their support to the causes, their fingers get busy.  I can relate to this infatuation as some of my workmates play K-pop songs during late shifts in an almost perpetual loop.

Kendall Jenner also asked her fans to vote for current boyfriend Devin Booker but that didn’t work out.  There’s that Kardashian “kiss of affliction” that befall on their basketball “interests”.  Ben Simmons, Chandler Parsons, and Blake Griffin, who were all linked to Kendall at some point, had their careers taking the wrong turn.

GOT7 got Golden State’s back.  It’s time for other NBA teams to recruit either Black Pink or BTS if they want their players to be selected to the All-Star Games. GOT7 and Wiggs proved that it works.