MINNEAPOLIS -- Andrew Wiggins started his NBA career at the front of his rookie class. He finished his first season there, too.
The Minnesota Timberwolves' forward will be named rookie of the year on Thursday, a person with knowledge of the announcement told The Associated Press on Wednesday night. The person requested anonymity because an official announcement has not been made.
While so many of his teammates -- and his fellow members of the class of 2014-15 -- went down with injuries that kept them out of action for months, Wiggins kept coming to work. Every game. Every day.
"I don't want to hear anybody saying there is anyone close to him," Timberwolves teammate and fellow rookie Zach LaVine said at the end of the season. "He had the best rookie year by far."
Wiggins averaged 16.9 points and 4.6 rebounds while playing all 82 games as a rookie and averaged 39 minutes per game for a team that was routinely missing five, six, even eight players a night to injury over the last four months (see full story).
Clippers: Doc Rivers fined $25,000
NEW YORK -- Clippers coach Doc Rivers was fined $25,000 by the NBA on Wednesday for public criticism of the officiating after Los Angeles' Game 5 loss to San Antonio on Tuesday night.
"I thought we got some really tough calls tonight, some brutal calls," Rivers said after the Clippers' 111-107 home loss. "The travel on Blake (Griffin), the goaltend on Matt (Barnes), which wasn't a goaltend. You think about the playoffs, and they're single-possession games. Those possessions, those were crucial. J.J. (Redick) `s foul that got him out, J.J. didn't touch anyone. It's not why we lost, but those were big plays for us."
NBA
Game 6 is Thursday night in San Antonio.
NBA: Abdul-Jabbar hospitalized
LOS ANGELES -- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has briefly returned to the hospital two weeks after undergoing quadruple coronary bypass surgery, but his business manager says it was just a precaution and the NBA's career scoring leader is doing fine.
Deborah Morales says the 68-year-old Abdul-Jabbar experienced a heart irregularity of some kind Wednesday morning and was examined by doctors at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. She says he didn't have any chest pain.
Morales says the Hall of Famer was examined and released after about an hour, was feeling fine and resting comfortably at home.
Abdul-Jabbar had surgery April 16. Earlier Wednesday -- before the episode -- he tweeted that he was "doing fine & feeling better everyday."
The former UCLA star scored 38,387 points in 20 seasons with the Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers.
NBA: Ex-player Crittenton pleads guilty to manslaughter
ATLANTA -- Former NBA player Javaris Crittenton has pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the 2011 shooting death of a mother of four.
Crittenton appeared in court Wednesday and was sentenced to 23 years in prison.
Prosecutors have said Crittenton was aiming for a man who had robbed him days before the shooting but shot Julian Jones instead.
Crittenton also was arrested in January 2014 on drug charges while he was out on bond.
Crittenton played with Los Angeles, Memphis and Washington. He signed a non-guarantee contract with Charlotte Bobcats in 2010 before being waived.
Rockets: Social media manager fired after controversial tweet
HOUSTON -- The Houston Rockets have fired their social media manager after he posted a tweet with an emoji of a gun pointed at a horse's head as they were beating the Dallas Mavericks.
The Rockets confirmed the dismissal of Chad Shanks on Wednesday. Shanks wrote on his personal Twitter page that he would no longer run the Rockets' Twitter account but was grateful to the organization.
The tweet, posted just before the Rockets finished a 103-94 victory to win the first-round playoff series, read: "Shhhhh. Just close your eyes. It will all be over soon." It was quickly criticized on social media and soon deleted.
The Mavericks responded with a tweet from their official account to the Rockets, reading: "Not very classy but we still wish you guys the best of luck in the next round."