With Curry, James and Durant out one after another, the NBA playoffs have not been seen in the divisional semifinals for the first time since the 04-05 season, which means that the era of the NBA is changing, the older generation of athletes is losing their dominance, and now it is the world of young people.
The 22-year-old Edwards is the representative of NBA rookie Wang, who led the Timberwolves to a 4-0 sweep of Durant's Suns and helped the Timberwolves enter the division semifinals again after 20 years. At the same time, Edwards' style of play has attracted fans, and he has also become the new king of popularity in the NBA, according to official statistics, since the start of the playoffs, Edwards has more than 100 million video views on NBA social and digital platforms, ranking second among all players, second only to James's 130 million. This means that Edwards has surpassed Curry and Durant in popularity in the playoffs, second only to James, and is the undisputed rookie king.
Even if you expand the scope to the regular season, Edwards ranks seventh in the league in video views on NBA social media, and he has been the player with the most followers since the playoffs began. Even Durant praised Huazi's performance, Adu specifically said: "He made a very strong impression on me, in the league, I love watching him play, I love everything about him, and I will continue to follow his growth." ”
Edwards' popularity is based on performance, in the series against the Suns, he averaged 31 points + 8 rebounds + 6.2 assists + 2 steals per game, shooting 51.2% from the field, 43.8% from three-point range, and he scored 40 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists in the G4 promotion game, becoming the second youngest player in NBA history to achieve this record, second only to Magic Johnson. It's no exaggeration to say that the best player in the playoffs so far has been Edwards, who has become a superstar in the league at the age of 22.
In the 2023 World Cup, although the United States team failed to reach the finals, Edwards' performance was impeccable, averaging 18.9 points, 4.6 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game, and he was selected for the best first team of the tournament and became the best guard officially recognized.
Playing in the NBA to become a superstar and playing in the World Cup is also the core of the U.S. team, relying on continuous excellent performances, Edwards has been selected for the Paris Olympics U.S. team, becoming one of the few young players selected, and his teammates will include James, Curry, Durant, and one of the youngest players of the American Dream Team.
Edwards's playing mentality is out of place in this era, he is eager to and enjoy confrontation, every game wants to defend the strongest player on the opposite side, and the offensive end is also eager to become the decisive player, his competitiveness surpasses most NBA stars, every time he plays a game, there is an infinite desire to win, this kind of playing mentality is rare in this era, this is the mentality of Jordan, Kobe Bryant and other historical supergiants in the past.
Competitive sports performance is the last word, and the skyrocketing popularity of Edwards still lacks more hard honor support, he has been selected as an All-Star twice, but has not been selected to the best team, nor has he won the championship, regular season MVP, Finals MVP These blockbuster honorary titles. Edwards still needs to work hard for this, he still has a lot of things to do at the moment, and I look forward to him getting stronger and becoming a real NBA No. 1 as soon as possible!
(Lin Xiaoxiang)