Who care about Michael Ray Richardson??? WOT the heck happened to Mitchell Wiggens???

I care about MIKE RAY RICHARDSON!!

 

You got my curiosity up, so I did a quick search. I really haven't heard anything about him since the last time he played for the Rockets. I'll see if I can't find more later.


Wiggins Career NBA Stats: http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/1627/wiggins_mitchell.html


List of USBL players including M. Wiggins and Lewis Lloyd: http://members.aol.com/bradleyrbt/usbl.html


Interesting message referencing Wigs in a Greek league (apparently with some success): http://x34.deja.com/[ST_rn=ps]/getdoc.xp?AN=529052957.3&CONTEXT=951152613.681639967&hitnum=1

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From The Orangeville Banner, 21 July 1999

MITCH WIGGINS HOPING FOR TRYOUT WITH RAPTORS SQUAD

Orangeville resident has dreams of resuming career in the NBA

By Travis Mealing
Banner Staff Writer

Trading shots with Michael Jordan and Dominique Wilkins as a high school star in North Caroline, Mitch Wiggins never dreamed he'd end up in Orangeville.
And yet the former first-round pick of the Chicago Bulls has called this town home during the off-season for the last 3 ½ years.
"It's very close to my heart because I grew up in a small town," Wiggins said. "This is very similar."
Wiggins says he has had a passion for basketball ever since he was a little boy, a love that paid off when he earned a scholarship to Florida State University.
In addition to earning a degree in sociology/psychology, Wiggins also me his future wife, Marita Payne.
As elite athletes, the two found they had much in common. Payne was a track star for Canada at the 1984 and 1988 Olympics and was a national team member for a dozen years.
After three years with the Seminoles, Wiggins was drafted 23rd overall in the 1984 National Basketball Association draft, a day he still considers a career highlight.
"Just getting drafted, knowing I was among the best in the world... it was a dream come true," he said.
By his own estimation, the six-foot-five guard had a solid rookie year. But the next year he was traded to the Houston Rockets when the Bulls drafted another pretty good guard - Michael Jordan.
He spent nearly five seasons in Houston, becoming friends with future Hall-of-Fame centre Hakeem Olajuwon and making it to the NBA finals in 1987. "I had big playoffs that year and in the finals I played even better," he recalled.
After a trade to the Philadelphia 76ers, he spent one last year in the NBA before heading overseas to ply his trade. He says five years in Athens netted him three Greek league scoring titles and many memories.
Wiggins then shuffled off to Italy for a year. Last season, he played in Limoges, France on the same team as New York Knicks first-round draft pick Frederic Weis.
It has been quite a varied career, but Wiggins says he hopes it takes him back to where it all began - the NBA.
He's angling to get a crack at a Toronto Raptors roster spot for the upcoming season.
"I know I'd play behind (Doug) Christie and Dee Brown, but the fifth guard will get some playing time," he said.
He says he's confident he has what it takes to play in the NBA again, although at age 38 he acknowledges this is likely his last shot. If he can't cut it, Wiggins says he wouldn't mind returning to Greece. "If things go well, I'll play another year or two and then get into coaching," he said.
He already has a bit of experience teaching the game, as his "Let's Get It Done" basketball camp has operated each summer in Orangeville for the last three years.
In the two weeks it ran at Orangeville District Secondary School recently, nearly 60 local youths were put through their paces, emphasizing mental toughness as much as the physical skills of the sport.
"We've got some talented kids here and my job is to take them to the next level," he said.

[This message has been edited by Tb-Cain (edited February 21, 2000).]