Photo Credit: AP Photo/Matt York
How Andrew Wiggins Became An All-Star Starter Because Of A K-Pop Star
The Golden State Warriors have been silencing critics all year and are currently the No.2 seed in the Western Conference with 36 wins and 13 losses. One key player who has been a big part of their success is Andrew Wiggins.
Wiggins has been a bright spot, bringing in some needed impact on both ends of the floor. This season, the 26-year old forward is averaging 18.1 points, 4.2 rebounds and an impressive percentage of 41.2% from beyond the three point line.
The numbers aren’t exactly new to Wiggins as he’s used to putting up 20-point bombs ever since he started his career. Becoming a defensive stalwart, an efficient three-point threat and a winning commodity however may be an unfamiliar territory for the former No.1 overall pick.
While this is pretty remarkable, these numbers and performances normally wouldn’t suggest that Wiggins should be the All-Star Game starter. But this past Thursday, the Warriors star was named just that – an All-Star starter.
How did this happen though? Well, K-Pop is part of the explanation.
BamBam, a K-Pop star from the group GOT7 tweeted out his support for Wiggins:
“It’s the best time to begin 2022! He is one of the best two-way players! Wiggs deserves to be an All-Star, vote Andrew Wiggins into the 2022 NBA All-Star Game..and I can’t wait to meet you all very soon.”
It’s the best time to begin 2022! He is one of the best two-way players!
Wiggs deserves to be an All-Star, vote Andrew Wiggins into the 2022 NBA All-Star Game..and I can’t wait to meet you all very soon#AndrewWiggins #NBAAllStar pic.twitter.com/bpOXKAJ920— BamBam (@BamBam1A) January 8, 2022
BamBam’s 10 million followers went to work and the tweet got 37k retweets, 69k likes and over 3k quote tweets. Since 50 percent of the weight on voting is the fan vote, this might have done the job.
The Athletic now took a deeper look into the K-Pop – Andrew Wiggins connection and found out, that the Warriors entered a partnership with BamBam:
Included as a small part of the Warriors’ vast business outreach the past year, they entered into a partnership with BamBam, a Thai singer based in South Korea who is a megastar within the K-pop world and also happens to be a fan of Steph Curry and, by basketball relation, the Warriors. …
Go back to Jan. 7. The Warriors’ social media team strategically selected that day for BamBam’s Wiggins-hashtagged All-Star post. It was a “2-for-1” sale. Votes counted as double. BamBam’s message, embedded below and sent to his 9.6 million followers, erupted in the active K-pop world, becoming Thailand’s No. 1 trending topic and generating enough buzz to boost Wiggins across the finish line as the third-leading vote-getter in the West frontcourt.
