Team USA wrapped up a 3-0 jaunt through the group phase of the 2024 Olympics on Saturday with a 104-83 drubbing of Puerto Rico that really wasn't as close as the score suggests.
Anthony Edwards breaks out the WINDMILL in Paris! ???? <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ParisOlympics?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ParisOlympics</a> <br><br>???? NBC and Peacock <a href="https://t.co/FdFYNz5eXr">pic.twitter.com/FdFYNz5eXr</a>
But this rise began long before Edwards windmilled in transition for an exclamation point on Saturday's win. It started long before he dropped 26 points on 11-of-15 shooting in that game. It started before he emerged from this group phase as Team USA's leading scorer.
Edwards has been on his way up for months. And leading the most decorated national team in Olympics history to another gold, at this point, just feels like another box for him to check.
On a defense-first team tailor-made to help Edwards focus on leading his offense, Ant averaged 25.9 points and 5.1 assists this past season. Then, as he has for each of the last three years, he elevated his game in the playoffs.
This spring and summer alone, he swept Kevin Durant and the Phoenix Suns, eliminated the reigning champion Denver Nuggets and averaged 27.6 points and 6.5 assists while shooting 40.0 percent from three.
Then, after plenty of discussion his potential to be the next "face of the NBA," Edwards joined an American side that featured KD (arguably the greatest Olympic basketball player of all time), LeBron James (arguably the best NBA player of all time) and Stephen Curry (inarguably the best shooter of all time).
Plenty of up-and-comers, even after receiving the kind of praise Edwards did during the playoffs, would've entered that situation with some deference for the all-timers.
Edwards didn't (at least not in the way some might've expected).
During Team USA's truncated training camp in Las Vegas in July, Edwards let the world know he'd approach the Olympics like he would any other tournament.
"I'm still the No. 1 option," Edwards told reporters. "Y'all might look at it differently, but I don't."
A month later, Edwards is backing up his bold statement.
Following his 26-point performance, Edwards is averaging a team-leading 16.7 points. That's more than Durant (16.0), LeBron (14.3) or anyone else in the red, white and blue. And the gap is even bigger in field-goal attempts.
Ant turns 23 this month. Twenty-three. And he already has the confidence to look at perhaps the greatest assemblage of basketball talent we've ever seen and think:
LeBron, KD and Curry are all surefire, first-ballot Hall of Famers. Embiid is a former MVP and perennial All-NBA contender. Derrick White, Jrue Holiday, Bam Adebayo and Anthony Davis are among the best defenders in the NBA. Jayson Tatum just led his team to an NBA title. And Devin Booker is a 27-year-old, four-time All-Star who's eighth all time in career playoff scoring average.
And yet, Edwards is threatening to finish the Olympics as the face of this team.
At the very least, he'll generate the talking point in much the same way he did in the playoffs: with the relentless confidence that has him looking to dominate every individual possession he plays.
For years, fans and much of the collective media that covers the NBA have wondered who would lead the league into its post-LeBron/Curry/KD era.
