Let Anthony Edwards Be Happy In Minnesota

It’s already happening. Before the Minnesota Timberwolves even took to the dais at media day. Before basketballs were bounced on the hardwood at Mayo Clinic Square for the opening of training camp, many in the national media decided this would be the year Anthony Edwards would guide the Timberwolves to an NBA title, or demand a trade away from the only franchise he’s ever played for.

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It’s a tale as old as time. A young superstar emerges on an inland, smaller-market team. Young superstar consistently takes the inland franchise to the playoffs, but can’t quite get them to a title in his early 20s. He only ever speaks glowingly about his small-market inland franchise, his teammates, coaches, fans, and life away from the glitz and glamour of living near the ocean. Then the national media starts a narrative that the young superstar might look for a way out if he doesn’t finally win a championship at 25.

Rinse and repeat every season for the rest of their careers until they win a championship. They get a two-year respite until the speculation ramps up again, or they finally get traded to an acceptable large city.

It happened most recently to Giannis Antetokounmpo, who spent the last seven years in Wisconsin before the Milwaukee Bucks mercifully ended it by trading him to Miami. Damian Lillard was regularly put in the trade machine in Portland until the Trail Blazers traded him to Milwaukee in a lateral move.

Even the great Kevin Garnett, dragging the post–Joe Smith Timberwolves to the Western Conference Finals in 2004, couldn’t get the media machine off his back until Minnesota finally dealt him to the Boston Celtics in 2007. Karl-Anthony Towns was getting shipped out of Minnesota every year despite constantly talking about how badly he wanted to stay and win a championship with the Timberwolves.

Now Anthony Edwards, entering year seven and his age-25 season, is the new face of the reality TV show I’m calling, I’m an NBA superstar…get me out of here! (My wife’s a patent litigator, so I dare you to steal that idea @NBC.)

Everyone has their sources. Maybe some rumblings come from an agent. Perhaps you know the player’s barber, and they spend the whole time at the shop sh–talking their team. Maybe it’s a family member, or someone who met them at that thing that one time.

In the case of Anthony Edwards pushing his way out of Minnesota, my source is Anthony Edwards.

Here are just a few quotes right from Edward’s mouth at Wolves media day on Monday.

“I’m super happy.”

“I think it’s going to mesh well.”

And, in direct response to a question from KARE 11’s Ashley Moore about the offseason narrative that the Wolves have a short window to make their superstar (Anthony Edwards) happy, “Yeah, I’m happy.”

Someone else asked about feeling added pressure or feeling reinvigorated after a big roster shakeup in the offseason.

“I don’t know what that word means, but I don’t feel like it’s added pressure,” he responded. “They’re going to put pressure on you with anything that you do. It’s fun to me, man; I love the game of basketball. I expect us to win, so I’m ready.”

He called Rudy Gobert a “nutritionist, mind guy” and said the whole team loves Rudy.

It’s hard to be any clearer about how much you love your team and the situation you’re currently in than Ant was at media day. If you want, you could pull 50 other press conferences over his career where he talks about his teammates as his brothers, his love for Chris Finch and Tim Connelly, and his and his family and friends’ love and appreciation for Minnesota and all the wonderful things the state and the Twin Cities have to offer.

But instead of using the words he actually said to build a narrative of a young, loud, charismatic star wanting to lead a historically irrelevant franchise in a state that Stephen A. Smith would rather not have to visit for the NBA Finals, it’s the words and names he didn’t say that grab the attention.

When Jon Krawczynski asked about his thoughts on the offseason moves, Ant said: “I’m going to miss Naz for sure; that’s my brother, but I’m super happy about the changes in the locker room.”

That can clearly only mean one thing. That Anthony Edwards hated Julius Randle with the burning rage of a volcano on the sun, and Minnesota’s locker room morale was in shambles for the last two years. It’s clear as day; not even one ounce of inference is happening here. It definitely couldn’t just mean he’s happy to have LaMelo on his team and has nothing to do about Julius Randle. That would be pure speculation.

But that’s the world young superstars have to live in. Nobody out there to take the reasonable approach and say, Edwards just turned 25. Maybe let’s give him 3 to 5 more years to play this thing out before we start to panic about his legacy.

• Jordan didn’t win until Year 7, when he was 28.
• LeBron James didn’t take home the Larry O’Brien trophy until Year 9, when he was 27, and he was the chosen one.
• Nikola Jokic led the Nuggets to the promised land in his eighth season, at 28.
• Shai Gilgeous-Alexander didn’t break through until his seventh season, a month shy of his 27th birthday.

Giannis, Jayson Tatum, Hakeem Olajuwon, Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, and dozens of other Hall of Famers forged similar paths.

The NBA has always been a what have you done for me lately league. We’re seeing it unfold in real time with Nikola Jokic in Denver. Despite winning a championship in 2023, three MVPs, and saying that he is going to sign his max contract with the Nuggets next season because that will get him the most money, there will be whispers all season, especially if the Nuggets struggle and don’t make the finals.

Anthony Edwards has three more years on his current contract and is eligible for an extension next summer. If the Wolves unravel this season and win 30 games while fully healthy, and Ant doesn’t sign the extension next summer, we can start to talk about the future. But for now, the timeline for success with Anthony Edwards is five years, not five months, so expect Ant to be around for the rest of his 20s.