Anthony Edwards’ best friend is sitting in the driver’s seat with his car running in the players’ garage at Target Center, nervously holding his phone while a March game between the Minnesota Timberwolves and Sacramento Kings plays on in the arena.
“Where are y’all?” the voice on the phone asks Nick Maddox, who first met Edwards in high school and has been by his side ever since.
“I’m sitting in the players’ garage and the car is in ‘drive.’ I’m ready to go,” Maddox says, trying to assure Shannon Jackson, Edwards’ pregnant girlfriend, that they are moments from meeting her at the hospital.
“Y’all probably (are going) to miss this,” Jackson says, convinced that Edwards will not make it to the hospital in time for the birth of their daughter.
“No, we not,” Maddox promises, just as a shirtless Edwards hops into the car. “We comin’!”
Not wanting to miss an important spring game against a Western Conference foe, Edwards decided to roll the dice and play against the Sacramento Kings on March 1, hoping that Jackson would not go into labor until after the game. He played the first half but got the call that they could not wait any longer.
Episode 7 of the Netflix docuseries “Starting 5” opens with the engine revving on Maddox’s car as he hurries the short drive through the streets of Minneapolis to the hospital. Cameras catch Edwards leaping out of the Audi Q8 at the entrance, still shirtless and with a towel draped over his right shoulder as he runs to Jackson’s room. He gets there just in time, standing by the bed as Jackson delivers the child with Maddox and Justin Holland, Edwards’ longtime business manager, standing just outside the room and cheering as the doctor tells Jackson to push.
“Let’s gooooo!!” they holler from the hallway.
“It was a full circle moment,” Holland told The Athletic. “I’m seeing him become a dad. He’s going from the student and now he’s becoming the teacher of his own family.”
The scene paints a picture of a unique dynamic that has become central to Edwards’ rise from the rough and tumble Oakland City section of Atlanta to one of the brightest young stars in the NBA, someone the league is relying on to help carry it forward after LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant step aside.
In an era increasingly dominated by international players, Edwards’ American roots, soaring dunks and movie star charisma have many believing he has shoulders wide enough and a smile bright enough to take on that burden.
“We continue to challenge Anthony because we think he can be one of the best players ever, and we don’t say that lightly,” Timberwolves president of basketball operations Tim Connelly said. “With that expectation comes tremendous responsibility.”
If he does have that thrust upon him, he will not be carrying it alone. Taking a page out of James’ playbook, Edwards has surrounded himself with a close-knit circle of family and friends who are helping him find his way to superstardom. Most everyone in that circle has been on board since he was a teenager or earlier, and there is no more room on the bus.
“I already got all my guys,” Edwards said. “You’ll never see no new faces with me. I don’t have to try to break somebody down and see if they’re real or not because I got my people.”
From left, the crew: Nick Maddox, Anthony Edwards, Shannon Jackson, Justin Holland, Drew Banks (back), Tre McCain (front) and Bubba Edwards. (Courtesy of Tre McCain)
They are his biggest supporters and his biggest ego checkers. They are his business partners and life partners, the people he trusts above all others. He will need them now more than ever.
Edwards is coming off of a breakout NBA season and an Olympic gold medal-winning performance in Paris. His Adidas AE 1 basketball shoe is among the most popular on the market. The attention is growing, the demands are rising and Edwards has given his people the task of keeping him grounded and insulated from the machine that is starting to move around him.
The closeness is evident throughout “Starting 5,” a 10-part series that also follows James, Jimmy Butler, Jayson Tatum and Domantis Sabonis last season. It debuts Wednesday on Netflix. Edwards’ crew is with him as he looks for a new home in the Twin Cities suburbs, as he prepares to play the Denver Nuggets in the playoffs, as he welcomes his daughter, Ainsley, into the world.
It takes a village to raise an Ant. Holland is the leader of the group, looking over Edwards’ business interests and setting things up for long-term success. Maddox is his right-hand man and co-star in his Adidas shoe commercials. Tre McCain is in charge of his media and social media content and Drew Banks — “Uncle Drew” — is the taskmaster. Edwards’ big brother Bubba, who goes by “bdifferent” in his burgeoning rap career, is there for moral support and motivation, as are his sister, Antoinette, and brother Twon. Bill Duffy and Stephanie Mejia of WME handle the agent aspect of his world.
“I think his circle does a great job pretty much telling him the truth when they need to and he does keep it tight,” said Wolves player development coach Chris Hines, an Edwards confidante on the staff. “He’s a smart kid. He knows there are going to be hands who are going to try to grab him. At the end of the day, our job is to just tell him the truth every day.”
It is a carefully curated team, handpicked by Edwards with an emphasis on trust and familiarity that was built long before he became an All-Star and the NBA’s next big thing.
“If he trusts you, he’s gonna rock with you,” Banks said. “But if he has bad intuition about somebody, he’s going to go the other way.”
McCain has a mathematics degree from Kennesaw State University and at one point dreamed of becoming the next Mark Zuckerberg. But he also loved basketball and was working to break into the social media space seven years ago when he saw a 16-year-old kid from Atlanta who jumped out of the gym and seemed to be drawn to the camera.
As luck would have it, Edwards needed a cameraman to put videos together for him. McCain was introduced to Holland and agreed to work for free because of the potential he saw in Edwards. Not long after, McCain met the rest of the crew. Banks has known Edwards since he was 6, shuttling him all over Atlanta to youth football games and, eventually, to school in the leafy suburbs more than an hour away. Holland started as Edwards’ trainer when he was a teen and has shifted into the group’s conscience, planner and organizer.
“I’ve been knowing my whole crew since I was like 13,” Edwards said. “It’s been a long time. That’s the answer to everything. That’s why we’re so cool with everything and run so smooth.”
If there is a common thread through much of his inner circle, it is that most of the men are considerably older than Edwards. Banks is 41. Holland will be 38 this fall. McCain is 31. Duffy and Mejia are both well-established in the sports business realm. Maddox is 24, making him the only one of the crew close to Edwards’ age. That is by design. Maddox said they are old souls who prefer reruns of “Sanford and Son” over the latest Marvel movie.
“I’m not the type that always listens, but I’ll listen to my elders,” Edwards, 23, said. “I’ll keep those types of friends around me because I’m not going to listen to somebody who is 22, 23. I’m going to listen to somebody who’s been through something, who are my parents’ age.”
In the early days, McCain and Holland would sit in the parking lot for hours while Edwards worked out, Holland shaking his head as his wife called him asking him how much longer it would be until he came home. They talked about patterning their group after James, who assembled a hungry, savvy team of confidantes, including Rich Paul, Maverick Carter and Randy Mims, that was doubted from the start.
Eventually, thanks to James’ on-court brilliance and the group’s ability to leverage its influence in the business, it built a powerhouse ecosystem that includes a production company and a sports agency and could become owners of an expansion franchise when James retires.
“I think we both have strong beliefs in ourselves and Ant,” McCain said. “But at that time, it seems like it was just dreaming. Now it seems like it’s attainable like it’s not that far away.”
The closer they get, the more pitfalls that lurk. During last season’s playoffs, Edwards seemed to ascend to another level of fame while leading the Timberwolves to the Western Conference finals. The Jordan comparisons were bountiful. “Good Morning America” had him on as a guest. The NBA featured him in promotional spots to draw interest.
It is one thing to be the face of a franchise like Edwards has become in Minnesota. It is another level entirely to elevate to face-of-the-league status, a transcendent kind of notoriety that can be suffocating. Edwards got a little taste of it at an AAU tournament this summer when he was swarmed by hundreds of giddy kids looking to enter his orbit.
Anthony Edwards is the most important player for the future of American Sports. The kids wanna be like Ant… I’m tellin ya. Watch.
🎥 Balling on the Beach 🏝️ pic.twitter.com/3jkRPzvAW8
— ZIM (@zimwhodey) June 16, 2024
“I was expecting it,” Banks said with a chuckle, “but some things in life, you don’t understand until you’re in it.”
That goes for the microscope Edwards is under as well. There have been some mistakes along the way. Edwards has twice issued public apologies for interactions that happened on social media. One of those, an anti-gay remark uttered on Instagram Live, drew a $40,000 fine from the NBA.
The familiarity the group has with each other means that when it is time to have hard conversations, they don’t shy away from them. Banks is often the one to “pull him up by the shirt collar,” as Holland puts it.
“We were raised by some wonderful queens that taught us that anything that is in the way, you gotta go through it,” Bubba Edwards said. “You can’t go around it. Can’t beat around the bush or act like it’s not there. We’re going to talk about anything, any situation that’s good or bad.”
On a smaller scale, Edwards drew criticism this summer for saying that Jordan was the only basketball player of his era who was truly skilled. It was harmless but did draw enough attention to get a rebuke from Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas. There was a time when a comment like that would’ve slipped past everyone unnoticed. Not anymore.
“He’s not making any more mistakes than most kids his age,” Holland said. “But when you are the No. 1 pick, you’re going to have the microscope on you more than others. That comes with responsibility.”
What everyone in Edwards’ circle understands is that none of the success happens without Edwards handling his business on the court. The more he wins and excels, the more doors that open for him in other pursuits. For all of the marketing and investing Edwards has done in his young life, he is still happiest playing basketball and video games.
“The crazier things get, the more you continue to do the things that you’ve been doing,” Holland said, referencing a saying by Tom Crean, Edwards’ coach at Georgia. “We live by that mantra. The crazier things get, continue to be in lockstep and move as a unit.”
Hines has a simple solution for all of the nagging and attention and hangers-on that come with the fame that Edwards is reaching.
“The gym is a haven. Nothing bad happens when you’re in there,” Hines said. “It’s when you get out of the gym when bad s— can happen. Nobody talks about his work ethic. The dude’s a worker and he likes it. He’s starting to get more addicted to it.”
Anthony Edwards attends the Los Angeles premiere of Netflix’s ‘Starting 5’ at The Egyptian Theatre Hollywood on Sept. 23. (Axelle / Bauer-Griffin / FilmMagic)
The rest of his people see that gleam in Edwards’ eye as well. They saw him fall short in the conference finals to Dallas last season, saw him watch his idol Kevin Durant’s every move in Paris this summer and the validation that came with Edwards helping the U.S. win that gold medal. They know that the Timberwolves will rely even more on him early this season as the team welcomes some new faces following the trade to New York of four-time All-Star Karl-Anthony Towns, Edwards’ running mate for his first four seasons in the league.
“He’s ready to come in and take everything,” Holland said. “I think he’s ready to take his game to the next level. Everything around the Anthony Edwards world, he’s ready to take another step.”
Holland has dubbed the 23rd year of Edwards’ life as his “Jordan Year.” It also is Edwards’ fifth season in the league, a number that holds a special place in his heart as a way to honor his mother, Yvette, and grandmother, Shirley. As he does the math, Maddox can only ponder the possibilities that await.
“Now is it a coincidence that Michael Jordan is (No.) 23 and two plus three is five and Ant’s in Year 5?” Maddox asks. “Who knows? I know that the knowledge he’s gained from the Olympics, the knowledge he’s received from the vets, the time spent with KD, this season will be remarkable. One for the ages.”
If setting James as the target seems ambitious, that is exactly how Edwards likes it. He wants to chase James, chase Jordan. He wants to take the Timberwolves where Kevin Garnett and KAT could not. When told that Connelly said he could be one of the best players of all time, Edwards shrugged as if that wasn’t outlandish but expected.
“I think he’s right,” Edwards said with a smile.
Everything is falling into place for Edwards and his group right now. It may feel as if he came out of nowhere, pushing the Timberwolves into the spotlight and inviting all of the pressure and expectations that come with pursuing greatness. But they are wondering what took so long for the rest of the league to recognize it.
“Truth be told, we felt we should’ve had this position,” Holland said. “We should’ve had this spotlight. When things started to take off last year, I told him, ‘We’re finally where we’re supposed to be.’ ”
(Top photo of Edwards: Jesse D. Garrabrant / NBAE via Getty Images)
