Who in the NBA brings out the best in you?
As Kevin Durant stood by his locker, he paused, taking a few moments to reflect.
There’s LeBron James, who inspired Durant to win two Finals MVPs in 2017 and 2018 with Golden State en route to his only championships. Or Stephen Curry, his former Warriors teammate, who’s often his competition when pundits debate the best scorer in the league.
Instead, the Phoenix Suns superstar went in a completely different direction.
“I’d say Ant,” Durant told FOX Sports of Minnesota Timberwolves superstar Anthony Edwards. “Just because of his energy every day. The pace that he plays at. The pace that he works out at. The s— that he talks. He gives everybody energy.”
Edwards is only 23 years old. He hasn’t even made an NBA Finals appearance, while James and Curry have won a combined eight championships. But the charismatic star, who’s often compared to a young Michael Jordan, wasn’t surprised by Durant’s response.
“He telling the truth,” Edwards told FOX Sports, flashing a wide grin. “That’s like my big brother, man. I love KD. He’s my favorite player of all time, so I appreciate that, for sure.”
That was more than just a heartwarming show of respect between a young hotshot and his longtime idol. More so, it was increasing evidence of a generational shift in the way the league’s biggest superstars view the up-and-comers, with them supporting and mentoring those labeled as “next,” instead of wanting them to first earn their stripes.
Just ask Warriors coach Steve Kerr, who was at the helm of Team USA as Durant, Curry, and James embraced Edwards during their gold medal-winning run at the Olympic Games in Paris this past summer.
That was notable for Kerr, who played alongside Michael Jordan, and saw how he was received by Magic Johnson and Larry Bird when he entered the league. He also witnessed how Jordan interacted with the league’s upcoming stars.
There’s a difference now. And Kerr believes there’s a reason why.
“I think what’s different is these guys tend to know each other a lot better now through social media, through whether it’s Team USA, summer stuff,” Kerr told FOX Sports. “We didn’t know guys back in the day. We didn’t know our opponents. Now, everyone seems to know each other. After games, it’s a love fest. Everyone shakes hands and hugs. Back then, you didn’t have that. So I think more than anything, there’s a mindset shift.”
(Photo by Patrick McDermott/Getty Images)
Durant is considered an all-time great. But there’s one criticism from pundits that has plagued him throughout his career: He’s a subpar leader.
Edwards, who spent the summer learning from Durant at the Olympic Games, didn’t hesitate when asked his opinion on that narrative.
“I think it’s bulls–t,” Edwards told FOX Sports.
Edwards worked out with Durant, Curry, James, and Bam Adebayo every day after Team USA practices. He studied the way Durant moved. He emulated his intensity. He mined him for knowledge.
“All he cares about is basketball, so that’s leading right there,” Edwards told FOX Sports. “If your best player only cares about basketball, that’s a way of leading. I think people view leadership as just being vocal. I think there are multiple ways in being a leader. He’s definitely a great leader.”
Edwards continued.
“He was a leader for me at the USA because that was my first time doing it and I wasn’t used to it. I definitely went under his wing and just followed everything he did. He’s dope to me, man. I don’t really care what anybody says about him.”
For Edwards, learning from Durant was a childhood dream come true. The first NBA game he attended was between Durant’s Oklahoma City Thunder and the Atlanta Hawks. Edwards wore No. 35 in honor of Durant. He bought Durant’s signature shoes.
As for Durant, he was quick to embrace one of his biggest fans, who has been labeled as the next face of the league, especially after they met in the first round of the playoffs last season.
In that series, Edwards averaged 31 points on 51.2 percent shooting, eight rebounds, and 6.3 assists a game as the Timberwolves swept the Suns.
“He plays defense, he plays hard, he cares, he wants to win, he wants to be great,” Durant told FOX Sports. “Those are usually the guys who give you the most trouble. A lot of guys are complacent and happy with the way they are. He wants more for himself.That means you go into the gym more. You watch more film. You play basketball more.”
Edwards won over Durant in that series, despite his deluge of trash-talk. Instead of being irked by the unproven phenom’s audacity, Durant was amused by Edwards’ confidence.
After Edwards talked smack to Durant following making a 3-pointer over Durant’s outstretched arms in Game 3, Durant responded by smiling. And when Edwards said he couldn’t wait to play alongside Durant at the Olympics so he could “let him know I sent him home,” Durant responded by choosing to mentor him.
During the Olympics, their bond deepened.
Durant got to know Edwards’ story, including how his love for Durant was inspired by his mother, Yvette, who died of cancer when Edwards was 14 years old. Within a dizzying eight-month span, Edwards also lost his grandmother to cancer.
“My mom loved KD,” Edwards told FOX Sports. “He was her favorite player growing up. Every time there was a game on the TV, only way she’d watch it was if KD was on it.”
Durant, who is famously close with his family, saw himself in Edwards to an extent.
Durant’s father deserted him when he was an infant until he became a teenager, leaving his mother, Wanda, and grandmother, Barbara Davis, to raise him. After Durant won the MVP Award in 2014, he teared up, calling his mother the “real MVP.” And when his grandmother died ahead of the 2022 All-Star Game, Durant, who was sidelined because of a knee injury, missed the entire weekend even though he was voted to be a team captain for the main event.
“I kinda got a feeling for understanding how he grew up, the obstacles that he had to go through, that him and his family had to go through, losing significant pieces like his grandmother, his mom,” Durant told FOX Sports. “That means a lot in the Black community. That makes you dive straight into your work. So, I could sense that we have something in common with going through some stuff at an early age.”
So, while many superstars of past generations kept rising stars at arm’s length distance, Durant took a different approach. He grabbed Edwards by his metaphorical hand, showing him the ropes.
Instead of viewing Edwards as a threat, he viewed him as a brother.
“I respected that he loved watching me play,” Durant told FOX Sports. “I really appreciate that. You never know who’s watching you when you do this. And for you to impact somebody as great as him, it makes me feel like I’m doing something right out here every time I walk into the gym.”
Historically, that level of embracement hasn’t always been the norm. When Jordan first entered the NBA in 1984 as the No. 3 pick by the Chicago Bulls, Johnson and Bird were the league’s unequivocal kings.
But they weren’t going to give him the blueprints on how to win.
“Back then and now, there’s kind of a king of the mountain type of mentality,” Kerr told FOX Sports. “You didn’t want to give up that mantle. So, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, they weren’t ready to just hand that over to Michael, and there was a sense of you had to earn it. And you had to earn it by winning at the highest level. And everyone was going to test you until you got to the top of the mountain. They would not give you any slack at all.”
Kerr believes that mentality may have made Jordan’s ascension tougher.
Johnson and Bird weren’t telling Jordan to put on muscle so he could get past the Detroit Pistons. They weren’t encouraging him to trust his teammates. They weren’t helping him tweak his game. Jordan had to figure out those things himself, or learn them from his coaches.
“That’s why it took Michael seven years to win a championship,” Kerr told FOX Sports of Jordan, who went on to win six rings. “But also to take on that lofty status of, ‘Hey, I’m the champ now. I’m the king of the mountain.’ It feels a little different now in that regard. I think guys are ready to help lift up a guy like Anthony Edwards before he wins a championship. So that’s probably the difference in mentality.”
(Photo by Erick W. Rasco /Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)
James, who’s Jordan’s greatest competition for being considered the greatest player of all-time, similarly didn’t have any superstars holding his hand when he entered the league as the No. 1 overall pick by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2003.
It was up to him to figure out how to rise above the crushing pressure of being labeled “The Chosen One” as a teenager by Sports Illustrated.
He taught himself how to ignore the seemingly omnipresent criticism. He devoted himself to developing new aspects of his game so he could reach eight consecutive NBA Finals and win four championships with three different franchises.
Similar to Jordan, it took him nine seasons to reach the mountaintop. Another thing they have in common? They mostly climbed that uphill journey on their own, without the sage advice of those who came before them.
In fact, James balked when asked if the league’s current kings — him, Durant and Curry — received the type of support they try to give.
“Don’t want to get into what the other generation either did or didn’t do for us coming up,” James said. “That’s water under the bridge. And it really doesn’t matter.”
Edwards recently left Curry a voice message.
When Edwards entered the league in 2020, he was known for his ability to get downhill. But his shot was considered a liability. “I’ve been trying to knock that off my name for a long time,” Edwards said.
This season, Edwards has been shooting four-to-five times a day to shake that narrative. But he also reached out to the master of the catch-and-shoot himself for pointers on how to make his shot so well-respected that if he pump-faked, defenders would have no choice but to jump.
Curry didn’t hesitate to help.
“I don’t want to give him too much of the knowledge,” Curry said, cracking a smile. “But you want to give back a little bit of the wisdom that you gain over the course of your career.”
Curry went on to divulge some of the secrets that have made him unstoppable from nearly anywhere on the court.
For him, the call was far from annoying.
“I love when people have asked me that type of question,” Curry said. “It keeps me sharp. It keeps me engaged on how I’m doing things. I learn some stuff too from the questions they ask. It’s a cool position to be in.”
Now, Edwards is averaging career-highs in points (26.2) and 3-point percentage (42.4%).
“Every time that b—h leaves my hands, cash,” Edwards said.
Warriors star Draymond Green recently mused that the younger generation views Curry and James as “mythical superheroes.” In fact, Green said he was recently contacted by a prominent All-Star who wanted Curry’s number so he could ask him for advice.
Curry immediately green-lighted the request.
But instead of reaching out to Curry, the All-Star again messaged Green, this time wanting advice on how to phrase his questions for Curry.
“I’m like, ‘Yo, just ask him. What do you mean how do I ask?'” Green recalled. “He’s like, ‘Well, I just don’t want to come across –.’ Bro, just ask him the question.”
Green said players are always surprised by how down-to-earth and approachable Curry is despite his standing in the league. “Their first reaction is like, ‘Man he acts like that?'” Green said. “‘He cool with you doing this?’ It’s like, ‘Yeah.'”
There’s a similar phenomenon with Durant, whom Green said is also viewed as a “mythical creature” of sorts, but in a different way than James and Curry.
“When you think you’ve got that bag, KD is definitely that mythical character because his bag is so deep,” said Green, who added that he’s one of the greatest scorers ever, if not the greatest.
But Green said because Durant is so approachable — often wearing sweatpants and engaging with people on social media — people can sometimes forget his status.
“He just gives you the bro next door vibes,” Green said. “I think that automatically makes everybody else comfortable, which also makes people disrespect him. They think, ‘Oh, he’s the bro next door.’ No I’m not. I’m Kevin Durant.”
While some players may try and go through Green to get ahold of Curry and Durant, he laughed when asked if he also gets requests for James’ phone number.
“No, you can’t get ahold of Bron,” Green said.
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James may not be the chatting-over-the-phone type, but he has been supportive of the up-and-comers.
James has sung the praises of Edwards and San Antonio Spurs phenom Victor Wembanyama, likening the latter to an “alien” because of his otherworldly skills. Meanwhile, Edwards felt so comfortable with James during the Olympics that he and Tyrese Haliburton would tease him for nearly being 40, calling him “grandpa.”
James made it clear that he wants the young stars to feel supported by the league’s biggest superstars.
“I would hope that we are some of a mentor-slash-inspiration on how to play the game, how to approach the game, how to be professionals, how to be role models to the next generation,” James said. “So, we would hope that we left an imprint to the younger generation that’s coming up in our game, that’s here now, that will become part of our league soon. That is the hope.”
(Photo by Jean Catuffe/Getty Images)
For Edwards, having the support of the league’s biggest stars has been instrumental. They’ve not only given him a front row ticket to observe how they work, but a backstage pass to understand their minds.
In a league where so many young stars flame out, it has helped him grasp what it takes to be great.
“I’m super happy, man,” Edwards told FOX Sports. “I used to watch these guys on TV and I never imagined being in this position. Being on the court with these guys, going against them is a dream come true. And the fact that they’re rooting for me is another plus.”
For LA Clippers coach Tyronn Lue, who was an assistant for Team USA over the summer, watching the superstars embrace the next generation so wholeheartedly was a stark change from the way things worked when he first entered the league as a player in 1998.
“Yeah, and it should be that way,” Lue told FOX Sports. “I think you’ve got to pass something down to every generation.”
Lue said that type of support makes a real difference, pointing to the fact that he saw Edwards improve over the short period that they were together last summer.
“I think it was good for Ant just to see how KD works,” Lue told FOX Sports. “Everytime KD is on the floor, he’s doing stuff at game speed, taking game shots, nothing is wasted. So it was good for him to see how KD works. And he kind of applied that as we went along. And he got better and better and better with his work ethic.”
As for Durant, helping Edwards was far from a chore.
In fact, when he looks at Edwards, he’s reminded of his own journey, back when he was a young trash-talking sensation starving to make a name for himself.
“His personality, just how he approaches the game, how much he loves the game,” Durant told FOX Sports. “His journey as a basketball player coming in, one-and-done. Coming into a city like Minnesota and then being the main guy. We have similarities.”
Edwards is soaking up all the help. He knows he’s lucky. His idol actually wants his sky-high expectations to be realized.
It’s interesting because, in some respects, it goes against human nature. In fact, Kerr often thinks about something former NBA great Isiah Thomas said that deeply resonated with him.
“He said when you win a championship it’s such an incredible feeling that you get selfish and you don’t want other people to feel that,” Kerr told FOX Sports. “You want to feel it yourself over and over again. You don’t want your adversary to feel that same feeling.”
That may be true.
But it’s apparently not stopping the league’s biggest superstars from dropping bread crumbs.
Edwards is taking advantage of them all, hoping to one day be at their level.
And until he gets there, he plans to keep asking for more, especially from Durant, who has proven to be even more impressive than he imagined as a child.
“He’s the greatest to me,” he said.
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.
Anthony Edwards
Kevin Durant
National Basketball Association
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