The whereabouts of a key player on the NBA's most marquee and best-covered team, Golden State Warriors, remained mostly a secret for nearly two months until Andrew Wiggins' return last week. The Athletic's Shams Charania reported the reason for Wiggins' absence was his father had a serious medical situation. Multiple reporters and editors involved in Wiggins coverage described the reporting experience as bizarre, as they debated how to pursue the story, but also one that threatened to upend the Warriors' season as it dragged on. Warriors communications director Raymond Ridder said he was surprised that no national reporters had come up with more details but said he never asked any beat writers not to look into it.

The coverage of Wiggins' absence brought up issues such as what is newsworthy, how much privacy athletes are entitled to, and how journalists and news organizations that cover them balance that with the main tenets of their jobs: reporting news. During Wiggins' return news conference, neither he nor Myers mentioned Wiggins' father and no reporters asked about him. The Warriors confirmed Charania's report. Myers thanked the media for respecting the personal life of someone in a public job, which is a pretty rare thing in the business.