2023-08-02 08:52:00
After three seasons to wear number 1 at Wolves, Anthony Edwards will find the 5. A figure which he grew up with and which has a very special meaning for him and his family.
The summer of 2023 is perhaps the most decisive of Anthony Edwards’ young career. At the end of a superb season rewarded by a first selection at the All-Star Game, he has just signed a contract extension to the maximum and will defend the American colors at the 2023 World Cup. But the most important thing is elsewhere for the back of Wolves.
It was in an interview with Shams Charania that he announced it: Anthony Edwards will swap his number 1 for 5. Some will see it as an anecdotal, insignificant, even disappointing change for fans who have recently purchased his jersey. But behind this choice, there is actually a moving story that gives it all its meaning.
JUST IN: Minnesota Timberwolves All-Star Anthony Edwards is changing his jersey number to No. 5.
“Whole different player” – Sitdown at @Stadium on decision to change from No. 1 to 5, goals for next season, aiming to push Karl-Anthony Towns to MVP-type year and more: pic.twitter.com/N9QR07FCbs
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) August 1, 2023
This story is that of a young boy touched by a family drama. When he was only 14, Anthony’s mother was stricken with cancer which cost him his life in January 2015. A few months later, the same illness claimed his grandmother. The adolescent loses his two greatest landmarks in quick succession.
Upon arriving at college a few years later, Anthony makes two important decisions. The first, snub the biggest universities in the country to join the Georgia Bulldogs and thus stay in his native state with his family. The second, continue to wear the number 5 in tribute to his mother and grandmotherboth of whom died on the 5th of the month four years earlier.
Georgia guard Anthony Edwards announced today that he is leaving school to declare for the NBA draft. He will be a candidate for the No. 1 pick. pic.twitter.com/aX3cqCo5dD
— Everything Georgia (@GAFollowers) March 20, 2020
During a university season and 32 games during which he proudly displays this number, Ant-Man demonstrates all his talent as a basketball player and asserts himself as one of the best prospects in the country. The best even, since it is with the first choice of the 2020 draft that he is selected by the Wolves. He made his NBA debut a few months later… without his number 5, already taken by Malik Beasley, who refused to give it up. Edwards must therefore separate from his heart number and adopt 1, from which he will come to the nickname « A1 from Day 1 ».
“A1 From Day 1 is a nickname that was given to me. It’s something made up… but I’ve always been number 5. I wanted to get it back after my rookie year, I couldn’t. I wanted to get it back after my second year, I couldn’t. We were just waiting for the right moment to arrive. »
– Anthony Edwards on the microphone of The Athletic Shams Charania reporter.
Ant obviously never gave up on getting his heart number back. But when Beasley was traded to Utah in the 2022 offseason, it was too late to request a number change. It was therefore Kyle Anderson who inherited it and wore it last season. But this summer, Edwards took the lead and quickly asked his teammate to recover number 5. Something that the latter immediately accepted, he – coincidentally – who always wore 1.
It is therefore with great pride and visible emotion that Anthony Edwards announced to Shams Charania that he will wear number 5 next season. After three years of winning the hearts of Minnesota fans with the 1 on his back, Ant will return to the number he grew up with. Asked what this will change for him, he promised fans would see “a whole different player”. His personal coach Justin Holland seems to agree:
“He is always hungry. But when you put that number 5 on his back, that hunger that he’s had from the start, that hunger that got him to where he is today, it’s only going to increase. »
Anthony Edwards already seems ready for his 4th year in the NBA. There Wolves star will find his heart number, and there is little doubt that he will do anything to honor it and make those for whom he wears it proud.
Source : The Athletic
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