Oh no Canada! Wiggins won’t play at 2024 Olympics

Andrew Wiggins is off Team Canada and Canada’s GM blames the Warriors

Andrew Wiggins will not be playing for the Canadian national team at the Olympics this summer. The Golden State Warriors say they made the call along with their small forward. The GM of Team Canada says the Warriors pulled him.

Warriors insider Anthony Slater called it a “mutual decision,” citing a late-season Wiggins ankle injury that concerned the team. But the GM of the Canadian national team, Rowan Barrett, told reporters Wiggins wants to play for his native country, and that Golden State is blocking him from doing so.

Barrett, whose son R.J. plays for the Toronto Raptors in addition to the national team, was insistent that it was the Warriors who were keeping Wiggins from going to Paris, not Maple Jordan himself.

“We were talking to him consistently, he’s been training for weeks and weeks getting ready for this.,” Barrett told reporters. “And then I got a call from Golden State a day or two before camp saying that they’re holding him out.”

Wiggins has a long history playing for Team Canada. He was part of their Under-17 and Under-18 teams, winning bronze medals at the FIBA World Championship in 2010 and the FIBA Americas tournament in 2012. Wiggins also joined Team Canada in Olympic qualifying tournaments in 2015 and 2021, though the Canadians didn’t qualify either time. This year will be Canada’s first appearance at the Summer Games since 2000.

While Wiggins didn’t participate in national team activities during the summer leading up to the Games, as Canadian players were supposed to, he had good excuses: Going to the NBA Finals and recovering from a multi-month rib injury suffered in the 2023 playoffs. He’d certainly have a role among Canada’s wing group that includes Barrett, Lu Dort, Nickell Walker-Alexander and Draymond Green’s arch-nemesis Dillon Brooks.

There’s been no comment from the Wiggins camp, but his family has an Olympics history. His father Mitchell never went to the Games, but his mother, Marita Payne-Wiggins, won silver medals for Canada in the 1984 Olympics in both the 4x100 and 4x400 relays.

Team Canada has a strong chance to medal in Paris, led by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and coming off a third-place finish at last summer’s FIBA World Cup. They didn’t give head coach Jordi Fernandez a maple syrup shower to celebrate the bronze medal, but they certainly should have.

Initially, it looked like the Warriors were trying to keep Wiggins healthy for a potential trade this summer. But now that Paul George is off the table and Klay Thompson looks certain to depart, bringing back Wiggins might be the Warriors best option at the wing position. Are they really going to chase Kentavious Caldwell-Pope or Gary Trent Jr. and jettison Wiggins?

Are the Warriors screwing over Wiggins? It seems like they probably are. But, after he missed extensive time with injuries and a personal leave in 2022-23, then had a terrible 2023-24 season with another personal leave, they could be trying to protect a player they’re paying over $84 million for the next three seasons. And also screwing Wiggins over.

There’s also a conspiracy theory afoot. Who’s the coach of Team USA? Steve Kerr? Who was coaching the American team who Canada upset in the bronze-medal game in Manila last September? Also Steve Kerr. Who has the power to stop Wiggins’ participation in the Olympics and any important games against Team USA. Steve Kerr again.

So are the Warriors being unfair to Wiggins? Or is Steve Kerr simply a tremendous patriot?