Anthony Edwards Makes It Look Easy While He Figures It Out

“He was like: ‘What’s up, Anthony? I’m Alex,’” Edwards said. “And I was like, ‘What’s good?’”

There are also moments when Edwards sounds like the most confident person on the planet. He is convinced, for example, that he could have played professional baseball. Or football, for that matter. (Once upon a time, he said, he was the best 10-year-old running back “in the world.”) Mere months into his career in amateur table tennis, he considers himself the best player on the Timberwolves. He would like to get involved in the rap game — as a producer and a performer, because why not?

“I love music,” he said with a disarming smile.

In a way, Edwards seems unaffected by the pressure that comes with being a top pick who will go a long way toward dictating the future of an N.B.A. franchise. And those who know him best say that his temperament makes him uniquely equipped for the role.

“I’ve always been struck by how effortlessly himself he is,” said Anderson, now an assistant coach at Jacksonville State. “He laughs. He talks. If he has questions, he asks. If he has an opinion, he opines. And if he doesn’t know about something, he won’t pretend that he does.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/24/sports/basketball/anthony-edwards-timberwolves.html