‘Young Michael Jordan’: Anthony Edwards is the next ‘face of the NBA’ and these numbers prove it

From the 12 months he entered the league, placing Yuta Watanabe on a poster earlier than a month later exploding for a 42-point haul in opposition to the Suns, Anthony Edwards has at all times been particular.

How particular?

Special sufficient to warrant Minnesota utilizing its first general choose within the 2020 draft to pick the Georgia guard, with the form of tantalising mixture of athleticism and playmaking to rework a franchise.

And that goes with out even mentioning his character which Tom Crean, Edwards’ coach at Georgia, described as “infectious”.

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“He’s a pied piper personality,” Crean informed The Athletic in 2020.

“People gravitate to him. They want to be around him and people really want him to like them. It’s a tremendous aura for a 19-year-old.”

Some individuals have a quiet confidence in the best way they go about issues. Anthony Edwards isn’t one among them.

There is nothing quiet about the best way he operates. Nothing quiet about the best way he dunked on Watanabe as a rookie, or the best way he trash talked Kevin Durant after hitting a 3-pointer over the Suns celebrity as Minnesota gained Game 1 and went on to comb the Phoenix collection.

Edwards averaged 31 factors, 8.0 rebounds, 6.3 assists and a couple of.0 steals in that collection and Durant mentioned after Game 4 that the 22-year-old was his “favourite player to watch”.

“[He has] just grown so much since he came into the league,” added Durant.

“His love for the game shines bright. That’s one of the reasons I like him the most. Love everything about Ant.”

He is a kind of gamers who makes it exhausting not to love them and now Edwards is quickly rising in the direction of superstardom after serving to take Minnesota to the Western Conference Finals.

Like Edwards, there was nothing quiet about the best way the Timberwolves took it to the defending champion Nuggets, claiming the opening two video games on the street earlier than obliterating Denver by 45 factors in Game 6 and clinching the collection with a historic second-half comeback.

While the basketball world has been so used to the likes of Durant, LeBron James and Steph Curry dominating the playoffs dialog, the Suns and Lakers had been eradicated within the first spherical whereas the Warriors didn’t even make it out of the play-in event.

Even Milwaukee’s celebrity duo Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard are out of the image after battling accidents in a gap spherical collection defeat to Indiana.

The identical goes for three-time MVP Nikola Jokic, leaving Edwards as one of many largest names left within the postseason together with Dallas superstars Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, Celtics duo Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum and the much-improved Tyrese Haliburton.

But it looks as if Edwards belongs in a separate class, most likely together with Doncic and possibly one among both Brown or Tatum, relying on how the remainder of the playoffs shake out, because the main candidates to be the following face of the league.

Edwards particularly although appears function constructed for the position, with highlight-reel performs and an equally loud character to match. Put merely, Anthony Edwards the participant and particular person cuts by means of.

Want proof? According to the NBA, Edwards generated greater than 100 million video views throughout the league’s social and digital platforms within the opening spherical of the playoffs.

That quantity was second behind just one participant: LeBron James. Edwards had additionally gained essentially the most Instagram followers amongst gamers because the begin of the playoffs.

It wasn’t simply the playoffs both, with Edwards ending the common season because the seventh most seen participant on NBA social media pages.

“He’s the face of the league,” teammate Karl-Anthony Towns mentioned after Minnesota swept Phoenix.

“I’ve been saying that. He hate when I say it but it’s true.”

ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, in the meantime, mentioned on NBA Today that Edwards is “the future of American basketball”.

“The thing that is so great about him is he plays both ends and he cares about both ends and he truly loves his teammates,” added Windhorst.

“He is not a conventional leader but he is an effective leader.”

That means taking accountability while you don’t play as effectively as a result of as a lot as a assured Anthony Edwards is an unstoppable Anthony Edwards, self-accountability is simply as vital.

It wasn’t like Edwards’ output of 19 factors, six rebounds and 6 assists within the Game 3 loss to Denver was that dangerous both. He simply has such excessive expectations of himself and what he’s able to.

“It’s on me,” Edwards mentioned after that recreation.

“I’ll take the blame for this loss. I came out with no energy at all. I can’t afford to do that for my team. I let my team down, the fans down.”

This was a unique aspect to the Edwards who appeared on ESPN’s NBA Today in January 2022 and was requested who’s the toughest participant to protect within the league.

“Myself because I’m unstoppable,” a assured Edwards replied.

Confident. Not cocky. There is a distinction, based on the person himself, who later informed Malika Andrews forward of this 12 months’s playoffs collection that’s the one factor individuals don’t perceive about him and the best way he goes about his recreation.

“A lot of people be calling me cocky,” he informed Andrews.

“That’s the main thing. It’s not cocky, it’s not arrogance. I’m just a confident person. I just think I’m the best in everything that I do.”

And by the tip of final season when championship-winning guard Bruce Brown was requested who the toughest participant is to protect within the league, he talked about Edwards’ identify alongside Thunder celebrity Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

Nuggets coach Michael Malone, in the meantime, mentioned forward of Game 7 that Edwards had “proven to be unguardable”, with second-year bench participant Christian Braun Denver’s finest wager of attempting to restrict his effectiveness.

Edwards averaged 27.7 factors all through the collection in opposition to Denver, scoring 43 factors in Game 1 and 44 in Game 5, when he warned a Nuggets locker room staffer that he’d be again.

“I told them,” defined Edwards, “I said ‘I’ll see y’all motherf*****s for Game 7.’”

It is that fierce competitiveness, confidence and swagger that has individuals throughout the league, together with Edwards’ personal teammates, drawing parallels with Michael Jordan.

“I’ve never met a guy or been a teammate with a guy who believes more in himself than Anthony Edwards,” Mike Conley mentioned on ‘Inside the NBA’ of Edwards, who reminds him of a “young Michael Jordan”.

Former teammate Patrick Beverley even made the comparability again in 2022 on J.J. Redick’s podcast, declaring Edwards “has a chance to be really special” within the NBA.

“If I say this, I know you guys are going to look at me like I’m crazy and I’m going to put all that pressure on that kid,” Beverley mentioned on the time.

“But, I told him, ‘Man, you got a chance, man. You got a chance, brother, to be Michael Jordan. You really do. You really do.’

“I’ve been around a lot of them and the kid doesn’t indulge in anything negative — just all positivity, all video games. His talent level, his skill level, it’s crazy. He has a chance to be really special. Really special in this league.”

Jordan himself additionally known as Edwards “special” after Game 1 in opposition to the Suns, based on Stephen A. Smith.

Edwards has persistently dismissed the comparisons, telling FOX Sports he can’t be in comparison with any person of Jordan’s calibre.

“I want it to stop,” Edwards mentioned. “He’s the greatest of all time. I can’t be compared to him.”

Meanwhile, in that sit-down interview with Andrews earlier than the playoffs, Edwards was requested the identical query and mentioned he doesn’t wish to be generally known as “the next Michael Jordan”.

Instead, he would favor to be “the first Anthony Edwards”. In different phrases, he simply desires to be himself and that’s what makes Edwards really easy to root for and so marketable for the league based on assistant coach Micah Nori.

“I think that the people gravitated to him because he was just a likeable dude,” Nori mentioned earlier this month after a apply session.

“He doesn’t change. He is who he is. I think anytime you’re not putting on a front or you’re not fake, you don’t have to change who you are, whether you’re in front of the media, or you’re out doing commercials or playing a game.

“Anthony Edwards is who he is, he knows who he is, and I think that’s why he’s able to accept it and handle it so well.

“… There’s obviously a big difference between confidence and arrogance. He’s just a very, very confident person and trusts his ability.”

It is why when Edwards informed that Denver employees member he would see them in Game 7, it didn’t seem to be simply speak, and it’s why when he mentioned he “wins two championships this summer”, the remainder of the league ought to have been taking discover.

If they weren’t then, they’re now and all indicators level to this simply being the beginning of Edwards’ time within the highlight as one of the crucial outstanding characters in a brand new period for the NBA.

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MAVERICKS VS TIMBERWOLVES SERIES SCHEDULE

Game 1: Mavericks vs. Timberwolves, Thursday, May 23, 10.30am

Game 2: Mavericks vs. Timberwolves, Saturday, May 25, 10.30am

Game 3: Timberwolves vs. Mavericks, Monday, May 27, 10am

Game 4: Timberwolves vs. Mavericks, Wednesday, May 29, 10.30am*

Game 5: Mavericks vs. Timberwolves, Friday, May 31, 10.30am*

Game 6: Timberwolves vs. Mavericks, Sunday, June 2, 10.30am*

Game 7: Mavericks vs. Timberwolves, Tuesday, June 4, 10.30am*

*if vital