Anthony Edwards the superstar is here. No more adding qualifiers and talking about the steps he needs to take to make it to the club. Edwards is there now in real-time. Whether it was the block heard ’round the world, his popular signature shoe, the comeback against the Clippers on national TV, or the Minnesota Timberwolves’ sustained excellence this season, Edwards is now an NBA heavyweight heading into the playoffs.
Throughout his nearly four NBA seasons, we have thrown around dozens of comparisons for which player Ant-Man reminds us of the most. Some comparisons were more optimistic than others. Some saw Dion Waiters 2.0 when evaluating Edwards coming off his one year at Georgia during the COVID-affected 2020 draft cycle. Most saw a young Dwyane Wade when we watched Edwards navigate his first few seasons in the NBA. But the new hot comp is one revered with a Voldemort-like ‘he who must not be named’ quality of shame for even thinking about saying his name out loud. It started with a picture of their faces spliced together, revealing an uncanny resemblance but nothing more. But as Anthony Edwards continues to wreak havoc on the league, it’s becoming impossible to ignore that he really does look like Michael Jordan out there.
Michael Grady and Jim Peterson reluctantly let it slip on the broadcast more and more as the season went on, and Anthony Edwards confirmed what we were all watching together. But Wolves legend Kevin Garnett is the most fervent believer in the Edwards-Jordan narrative. KG is Javier Bardem watching Timothee Chalamet do any of his Desert Jesus routines in Dune 2 whenever he watches Edwards do anything remotely MJ-like. Garnett specifically sees Ant as a Gen Z spitting image of a young version of the GOAT. He originally compared Ant to a rookie Michael Jordan circa 1984. After he saw Edwards hit his head on the rim during his game-saving block against the Pacers, KG upgraded his comparison to 1988 Jordan.
That’s high praise for one of the game’s greatest players to dole out to a 22-year-old who has two first-round playoff exits to his name. However, invoking 1988 Michael Jordan is significant for many reasons. Jordan was a star the minute the Bulls selected him with the third pick in the 1984 NBA Draft, but 1988 was the year he took his career to the next level.
Michael Jordan was named league MVP for the first time in 1988 and won his only Defensive Player of the Year award. Crucially, 1988 was the first year Jordan led the Chicago Bulls out of the first round of the playoffs before losing to the Bad Boy Pistons in the Eastern Conference Semifinals in five games. It was the first time anyone around the league could see a glimmer of a future in which Jordan and the Bulls ran the league and the world for the next decade.
It might seem like an impossibly unfair comparison. Still, Edwards is doing his best to close the gap and open the minds of basketball purists who won’t even entertain the thought of anyone resembling Jordan. This is Edwards’ fourth season in the NBA, as was 1987-88 for Michael Jordan.
Edwards is enjoying the best season of his young career so far, averaging 26.4 points per game, 5.3 rebounds, five assists, and 1.3 steals while shooting career-bests (until his recent cold streak from three) across the board. Ant was named to his second straight All-Star Game, seems poised to get his first All-NBA nod, and could be the next face of American basketball. Some analysts have included him in their MVP narrative. Ant is still a tier or two below ‘88 MJ in terms of star power, but the most important similarity is their ability to will their teams into contention.
Jordan was already an MVP runner-up in 1987. But the Bulls finished 40-42, and the top-seeded Boston Celtics swept them in the first round of the playoffs. Ant and the Wolves went 42-40 last year, battled through the play-in, and lost to the top-seeded and eventual champion Denver Nuggets. Jordan’s Bulls won 50 games in 1988 and followed that up with two trips to the Eastern Conference Finals in ‘89 and ‘90 before winning six of eight titles from 1991 to 1998. Edwards and the Timberwolves are currently 45-21 and in third place in the Western Conference. There’s no telling how much winning (or losing) Edwards will do over the next two decades, but being on a similar early career trajectory as Michael Jordan can’t be a bad thing.
The comp isn’t perfect; no player is the same. Almost all statistical categories besides three-point shooting heavily favor 24-year-old Jordan over present-day Edwards. Jordan was the MVP and already the best player in the league at this stage of his career, while Edwards will likely be fighting for a top-10 MVP finish and All-NBA second-team spot at season’s end. If you want a closer statistical and resume comparison, you could easily make a stronger case for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander at this career stage. However, Shai plays primarily below the rim, while the rim is the only thing stopping Ant and MJ from playing even higher.
Being compared to Jordan is the greatest compliment any basketball player can ever hope to receive. Kobe Bryant did the best Jordan impression since the GOAT retired for good. With a little more seasoning, Edwards could take his ‘squint and you can see the similarities’ act and turn it into a full-on Jordan clone.
