Anthony Edwards Says He Has One Thing That Michael Jordan Never Had

Stephen Douglas | May 10, 2024

Anthony Edwards on 'GMA.' / Good Morning America / ABC

Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves face the Denver Nuggets in Game 3 of the NBA Western Conference semifinals on Friday night. The Timberwolves have a 2-0 lead and Anthony Edwards has been spectacular throughout the Wolves' playoff run. Maybe that's why he was featured on Good Morning America on Friday morning.

Malika Andrews interviewed Edwards for NBA Today, but ABC gave GMA a pretty spicy clip to air to promote the full interview which will air later today and then again on GMA on Saturday. Andrews asks Edwards about the Michael Jordan comparisons he really doesn't want to talk about. In the process of not talking about the comparisons, he explains that he has one thing Jordan didn't.

Anthony Edwards wants to be talked about as “the first Anthony Edwards — not the next Michael Jordan.”

“He maybe got a mix of Michael Jordan in him… but I got a trey ball. That makes me a little different than Michael Jordan.”

This morning on @GMA: pic.twitter.com/dgwO8MaQLI

— Malika Andrews (@malika_andrews) May 10, 2024

"The first Anthony Edwards. Not the next Michael Jordan. I want people to be like, this Anthony Edwards kid, he got his own style like, he maybe got a mix of Michael Jordan in him, but you know, I got a little, I got a trey ball. My trey ball. I can shoot the three so that makes me a little different from Michael Jordan."

Different might be an understatement when it comes to these guys shooting the three. It's barely the same sport from behind the arc. Jordan retired as a career 33% three-point shooter on just 1.7 attempts per game. He didn't shoot 20% from three until his fifth season when he was 25-years old. At 22, Edwards shot 36% on 6.7 attempts per game.

As for the overall Jordan comparisons that he doesn't want to talk about and we're not supposed to talk about... Anthony Edwards does totally remind me of Michael Jordan. And it's incredibly funny to downplay comparisons to Michael Jordan by saying you're actually a better shooter than he was.

But it's true. The way Edwards moves. The way he jumps. The way he seems to hang there and take and make shots from angles that no normal professional basketball player can. It really is Jordan-esque.

It doesn't mean Edwards belongs in a conversation about Capra hircus, but there are compilations and it is undeniable that Anthony Edwards should remind people of Michael Jordan in the way that Kobe Bryant wanted to remind people of Michael Jordan. The fact that Edwards is not trying to be Michael Jordan is what actually does make him the first Anthony Edwards. And that's pretty damn cool.