Golden State Warriors’ Andrew Wiggins May Be An NBA All-Star… Because Of K-Pop Star GOT7’s BamBam?

NBA x K-Pop collabs FTW.
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Tegan Sweeting
Tegan Sweeting

The NBA (the National Basketball Association) is preparing for one of its biggest events of the year: the NBA All-Star Weekend.

| NBA

It’s an annual event hosted by the NBA in February. It occurs over a three-day event that spans Friday to Sunday, usually around Valentine’s Day. The exhibition features 24 of the league’s star players selected by fans votes, and these top athletes make it to the All-Star Game to compete. So, like we vote for our favorite K-Pop groups and idols during awards season, basketball fans do the same, as you can vote on the official website or even just by tweeting.

| NBA

Voting began on Christmas Day, December 25, 2021, and recently closed. Now that the results are out, basketball fans have some mixed reactions to the picks, feeling like many great players got snubbed.

Some of the biggest news right now is especially around Golden State Warriors‘ small forward Andrew Wiggins. He’s set to be a starter for the Western Conference at the 2022 NBA All-Star Game. Many people are wondering how the heck he made it, and their favorites didn’t.

There’s quite a bit of controversy surrounding Wiggins. The 26-year-old Canadian player is a solid player, but many feel as though he hasn’t really lived up to his potential.

There were plenty of players who deserved a starting nod over him. Either Devin Booker or Chris Paul would have worked while they lead a Suns team that is currently the league’s best by far. Jazz center Rudy Gobert, Wolves center Karl-Anthony Towns, and teammate Draymond Green have a better starting case than Wiggins in the frontcourt, and Luka Doncic and Donovan Mitchell do in the backcourt, too.

— Ricky O’Donnell via SB Nation

Screenshot on January 28, 2022. | Google

The truth is Wiggins maybe wouldn’t have made it if it weren’t for K-Pop fans. Hear us out…

First of all, the NBA All-Star Game starters are chosen based on voting, as we mentioned before. However, they’re divided by fan votes (50%) through social media, NBA’s website, etc., media (25%), and even players (25%).

So, as you can see, fan votes are crucial. And everyone wants social media engagement. Who is better than K-Pop fans regarding social media engagement and voting?

Ahgases (fans of GOT7) were initially surprised to see GOT7’s BamBam tweet about the upcoming NBA All-Star Game… But this is a dedicated fandom, so, of course, we’re going to join him in voting for his favorite players.

It all began to make sense, though, when the Golden State Warriors officially announced BamBam to be the team’s Global Ambassador. From then on, BamBam took his job very seriously.

Surprise! Look at my shirt~~
I am very honored to be named as the Golden State Warriors’ Global Ambassador.
This is super exciting!! I will do my best engaging with GSW and all the fans throughout the season in 2022.
Please keep showing our support to the greatest GSW players! Let’s wait for more surprises!

— BamBam

He literally turned Ahgases into NBA fanatics overnight and vice versa! Twitter was wild during this time. There were even entire threads dedicated to GOT7 and the Warriors!

Warriors fans were confused at first about who this “BamBam” guy was, but they soon became fans of him too. Who can’t fall for BamBam anyway?

BamBam tweeted his votes for a few of the Warriors, including Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, and, of course, the main man in question, Andrew Wiggins.

Considering BamBam is literally the most followed K-Pop idol on Twitter (10 million followers), appointing him as Golden State Warriors’ Global Ambassador during the voting period for the NBA All-Star Game was beyond brilliant. He’s guaranteed to get social engagement on all of his posts. Even retweets count toward votes, and the above post gained Wiggin’s at least 39K votes!

BamBam

SF Gate reported that BamBam’s Wiggins post was the “second most popular vote tweet only behind BamBam’s support of Steph Curry.” 

BamBam and his loyal fanbase, along with the Warriors fan (Dub Nation), certainly helped Wiggins a lot. In player votes, he was only fifth. In media votes, he was sixth!

There is a lot to take into account, though. SB Nation pointed out that the NBA made some interesting rules which may have impacted things here.

The NBA decided each conference starts two backcourt players and three frontcourt players in the All-Star Game. Why? Who knows. That particular rule really worked in Wiggins’ favor.

— Ricky O’Donnell via SB Nation

Not to mention that a lot of popular players, such as Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, and Anthony Davis, have been injured. Meanwhile, Wiggins is healthy and good to go. Unlike some people, he also got the COVID-19 vaccine… We’re looking at you, Kyrie Irving.

In the end, “Wiggins had the ninth-most votes among the 10 All-Star starters.” And, it seems like fan votes were a great contributor. After all, he was only fifth in player votes, and in media votes, he was sixth!

The Golden State Warriors already have a large and dedicated fanbase called Dub Nation. Combine it with the dedicated K-Pop fandom of GOT7, Ahgases (also known as iGOT7), Wiggins was guaranteed to go to the 2022 All-Star Game.

Read more about it below:

GOT7’s BamBam Is Making Ahgases Out Of NBA Players And Fans And Vice Versa

Source: SB Nation

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