Even When Anthony Edwards Tries To End The Michael Jordan Comparisons, He Does It Exactly Like MJ
It's hard to be on Twitter or watching any sort of sports programming right now and not see some sort of Anthony Edwards/Michael Jordan comparison. From the way they play, to their competitive spirit, to the way Ant sort of looks like a young MJ, you have people on Al Gore's internet suggesting that Edwards is actually MJ's kid while being completely serious (you never know!).
And I'll concede, some of what we see from Ant is pretty eerie
One of the more fascinating about Ant's rise is that nobody really objects to this MJ comparison. After decades of LeBron/MJ debates, I find that pretty interesting. Is it because Ant has a universal approval rating or something? Is it because of how similar their games look stylistically? Because I'm old enough to remember when having the career of LeBron James still didn't even get you MJ comparisons, and here we are with Ant already getting it at age 22 without ever even making a Conference Finals.
But perhaps nobody really cares about the comparison because unlike LeBron, Ant is not calling himself the GOAT or even entertaining the idea that he's MJ 2.0
Here's the thing though. Even his refusal to entertain this idea is exactly like what MJ did!
Before I always thought this comparison was mostly for NBA Twitter and for all of us to just have some innocent fun with….but now I'm not so sure after seeing Ant's answer on this subject compared to MJs.
Deep down, I'm sure there's a part of Ant that believes this. You don't get to where he is in the league without having supreme confidence, and this type of humility at his age is pretty refreshing. That's a player that isn't believing his own hype or getting off to his own press clippings. As a Wolves fan, this would have me falling in love with Ant even more. Let everyone else make this comparison while you show humility and respect.
Tell me that's not exactly what MJ did in that clip?
Everyone knows he's the GOAT, including probably MJ himself, but he knows he doesn't need to be the one to say it. Compare this MJ/Ant approach to another guy who wants to be in the MJ/GOAT conversation. Pretty opposite ends of the spectrum if you ask me.
And while Anthony Edwards will most likely not end his career with the GOAT tag like MJ, that doesn't mean the sky isn't the limit for him. You pair his talent and his mindset and just think of what things will look like once Ant enters his NBA prime years which are still at least 5 years away.
He may not be MJ, but that guy is going to be even more of a problem than the 22 year old version we're currently watching,