What makes Wiggins proudest from Warriors' championship run

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Andrew Wiggins played a critical role in the Warriors’ playoff run to championship glory last season, nearly nabbing the NBA Finals MVP award in the process.

And while there are too many memorable postseason moments for the 27-year-old to count, he shared with NBC Sports Bay Area’s Kerith Burke the aspect from those nine weeks that makes him the proudest.

“Just knowing that I was a big part of winning on a championship team,” Wiggins told Burke last month at Warriors media day for the latest “Dubs Talk” episode. “It’s because a lot of people earlier in my career, it was like, ‘You’re on the bad team, you’re scoring with a bad team, you’re doing this on a bad team.’

“So, to be able to come over here and help all these guys here and be out there and be a part of the core, be a part of the team, it feels good just proving people wrong and just winning.”

Wiggins rose to the challenge during the 2022 NBA playoffs with the stakes at their highest.

Aside from Steph Curry, who ended up with the aforementioned Finals MVP award, Wiggins was the best Golden State player on the court as the team took down the Denver Nuggets, Memphis Grizzlies, Dallas Mavericks and Boston Celtics to hoist their fourth Larry O’Brien trophy in eight seasons.

The former No. 1 overall draft pick averaged 14.0 points and 6.8 rebounds in five first-round games against Denver, then improved upon those numbers in the Western Conference semifinals opposite the Grizzlies (15.0, 7.0). 

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Wiggins averaged 18.6 points and 7.2 rebounds against Dallas in the Western Conference finals and helped send the Celtics packing in the Finals with an average of 18.3 points and 8.8 rebounds.

The two-way postseason performance came as Wiggins was assigned to some of the league’s most potent players, too, like Luka Dončić and Jayson Tatum. And it all happened in his third season with the Warriors after years of playing for the Minnesota Timberwolves, where the forward hardly was able to shine.

Wiggins’ abilities combined with Golden State’s championship DNA was a recipe for success, with his Warriors teammates bringing out his true potential.

RELATED: Wiggins enters new season after shedding weight of negativity

And as Wiggins awaits a contract extension while glancing ahead to some lofty goals for the 2022-23 season, it never hurts to look back on his accomplishments in the spring.

He told Burke it was a nice feeling to silence his critics.

“Nothing like it.”

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