Something was off with Anthony Edwards.
Tom Crean, who coached Edwards during his one year at the University of Georgia, immediately recognized the subtle signs in his face, eyes and shoulders that belied his signature smile.
So, heading into Game 3 of the Minnesota Timberwolves‘ first-round playoff series against the Los Angeles Lakers last month, Crean texted Edwards a video message.
“You’re a heck of a player no matter what,” Crean relayed to FOX Sports. “But when your joy is front and center, you’re basically unguardable and unstoppable.”
Those words deeply resonated with the 23-year-old Edwards, who played with a freeness in Game 3 that had been absent in the first two games of the series. He was loose. He was joking around. He oozed the signature charm and bravado that has led to him being compared to Michael Jordan.
With the score tied at 103-103 and 4:37 left in Game 3, Edwards led the Timberwolves on a 13-1 run with a combination of big shots and lockdown defense en route to a 116-104 win.
But what stuck out most was the way he did it.
Edwards’ energy was so infectious that LeBron James was cracking up as they exchanged words with just over two minutes left, even though the Lakers were trailing by seven points.
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And after Edwards made a 24-foot stepback jumper with 1:06 left, he skipped down the court, faced his fans and signaled for them to cheer louder, flashing a wide grin as they screamed.
During his walk-off interview with ESPN following his 29-point, eight-rebound, and eight-assist performance to put the Timberwolves up 2-1, Edwards was asked about his constant laughter and smiling throughout the game.
“Big shoutout to my college coach, Coach Crean, man,” Edwards said. “He texts me, he gives me advice every day. Every single day, literally. And he told me I don’t play to the best of my ability when I don’t play full of joy, so, I appreciate him.”
For the rest of the series, Edwards led with joy.
It was exactly what Crean was hoping to see.
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“There are certain things that separate each individual and gives them their very best chance,” Crean told FOX Sports. “And he can look happy, and he can look like he’s playing well. But if you know him well enough, you know there’s more in there.”
In Game 4, Edwards had 43 points. And even though he only had 15 points in Game 5, he was effervescent during and after the contest as his team eliminated the heavily-favored Lakers.
As he walked through the hallway of Crypto.com Arena, he mocked commentator Shannon Sharpe’s “Lakers in five” prediction. Said a beaming Edwards: “Ant-man, Batman, Superman, Lakers in five.”
He was on such a high that instead of getting on the team bus, he walked out of the arena and onto the streets of downtown Los Angeles. As he strolled around, he trolled hecklers and answered fans’ questions, including telling one guy that his favorite movie is “Matilda.”
For the second postseason in a row, Edwards has led the Timberwolves to the Western Conference Finals and is the talk of the basketball world. And while he’s receiving a lot of praise, Crean’s texts have a very different purpose.
They’re meant to sharpen the knife.
“I watch him from a coach’s eyes,” Crean told FOX Sports. “I watch it strictly as this is where he is at right now, to this is where he can get better in a short period of time. I think there’s more. He knows it. It’s not something I talk about publicly.”
Crean believes Edwards can grow into an All-NBA level defender and can become much more efficient on the offensive end. He thinks he has only begun tapping into his potential, a scary prospect considering Edwards averaged career-highs in points (27.6) and 3-point percentage (39.5%) this season.
“There’s more in there,” Crean told FOX Sports. “Some of it is going to come naturally with age. But some of it can be tightened up right now.”
Tough lessons and a key observation from a Hall of Famer
Crean coached Edwards from 2019-2020 in what should’ve been his senior year of high school after he reclassified from the class of 2020 to the class of 2019. It was a pivotal time in Edwards’ life.
Following the death of his mother and grandmother a few years earlier in 2015, Edwards was learning who he could trust. Everyone wanted a piece of the teenager who was on the verge of becoming a breakout star.
Edwards, a top-rated recruit out of high school who could’ve played basketball anywhere, chose Georgia because he wanted to remain close to his hometown of Atlanta. He also liked Crean’s energy and was drawn to the fact that he had coached Dwyane Wade and Victor Oladipo, helping them become top-five picks in the NBA draft.
During their time together, Crean would often pull Edwards aside for long chats.
Off the court, he quickly realized that Edwards was very intelligent and he wanted him to use his own voice instead of letting others speak for him. And on the court, he wanted him to realize his potential instead of relying on his incredible combination of speed, strength, quickness and balance.
Crean made Edwards’ workouts especially difficult.
During four-on-four shell drills, defenders would typically switch out after getting one stop. When Edwards’ group was up, Crean would change the rules, telling them they needed to get three stops in a row.
“Early on, he’d get mad,” Crean told FOX Sports. “But then he started seeing it as a challenge, like, ‘I’m gonna stick this up your butt.’ That’s exactly what you want in a player. You want them to have that attitude towards you.”
Anthony Edwards played one season at Georgia under coach Tom Crean. (Photo by David E. Klutho /Sports Illustrated/Getty Images)
For Edwards, his biggest problem was the game came a bit too easily to him. He was a hard-worker, who would often spend two hours in the gym after games and would regularly workout by himself at 9 p.m.
But he’d lose interest in moments that required focus, such as when his team had big leads.
That’s something that Dwyane Wade immediately noticed about Edwards when he brought his son, Zaire, on a recruiting trip to Georgia.
Wade, Zaire, Crean and Edwards were all in a room watching film. Wade, whom Crean had coached at Marquette before he became a three-time NBA champion, interjected as he watched tape of Edwards.
“It’s almost like you get bored with the game,” Wade told Edwards.
Edwards silently processed those words.
“I think that’s probably one of the first times he had something like that said to him,” Crean told FOX Sports. “But it was truthful.”
Edwards embracing the high expectations
During his time at Georgia, Crean watched Edwards grow as a player and a leader. He helped him improve his fundamentals, ranging from step-ins to catch-and-shoots. And he impressed upon him the importance of urgency and intensity.
Things didn’t go as planned, with the Bulldogs going 16-16. But Edwards led all freshmen in the nation in scoring with 19.1 points a game, and he went on to be selected as the No. 1 overall pick by the Timberwolves in the 2020 NBA draft.
Crean, who was fired in March 2022 after the Bulldogs went 47-75 over his four seasons at the helm, has stayed in close touch with Edwards, as he has with many other players he coached, including Wade, Oladipo and Nic Claxton.
Crean is relieved Edwards landed in Minnesota.
“I said all along, whoever got him the first two years out were going to be the absolute most crucial to his future after the year that we had with him,” Crean told FOX Sports. “And that’s where Minnesota has done an incredible job. They’ve done a great job because that could have gone different ways because he’s so young, so much is thrust upon him, there’s high expectations.
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Over the last five seasons, Edwards has surpassed expectations, becoming a three-time All-Star who is considered on the short list to become the future face of the league, even though he has denied wanting that title.
Meanwhile, Crean has remained a voice he can trust.
When Crean texts Edwards, the star knows his former coach has nothing to gain from it. He’s simply just looking out for him. The purity of that dynamic has allowed for Crean to be brutally honest with him.
So, he calls out Edwards when he’s taking breaks on the defensive end. Or when he should move the ball more on offense.
Or when he’s not playing with enough joy.
When Edwards flashes his pearly whites and overflows with a deluge of trash-talk, he has a gravitational pull like the sun, energizing everyone around him. In many ways, his joy is his superpower. Not only does it bring out the best in him, but it makes him a great leader.
“People don’t follow moody people; they tolerate moody people,” Crean told FOX Sports. “That’s not Anthony.”
So, following Crean’s text, Edward leaned into his joy, even when that was challenging to do.
That was never more apparent than Game 5 of the Timberwolves‘ first-round series against the Lakers, when Edwards shot 0-for-11 from 3. Instead of becoming bored or frustrated, he remained engaged, finishing with the second-highest plus-minus (+12) of anyone on the court despite his woeful shooting.
He played lockdown defense, had 11 rebounds and eight assists, impacting winning in many ways. And he did it all while maintaining his joy, which not only inspires his best play but also encourages everyone around him.
For Edwards, that showed incredible growth.
“When we had him, he was very much more concerned about his performance and the winning would come from that or not come from that,” Crean told FOX Sports. “And now he is way more locked into winning. He really flipped it at a young age.”
Edwards knows Crean has played a big part in that.
That’s why during the playoffs, in front of millions of people on national television, he chose to bring up his college coach, unprovoked.
As for Crean, he keeps watching Edwards with a hawk’s eye, never hesitating to give him the unfiltered truth.
“I have no doubt that there were many days that he didn’t like me,” Crean told FOX Sports. “That’s all part of it. You have to be unafraid to help somebody become great.”
Melissa Rohlin is an NBA writer for FOX Sports. She previously covered the league for Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Times, the Bay Area News Group and the San Antonio Express-News. Follow her on Twitter @melissarohlin.
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