With longtime NBA superstars like LeBron James and Stephen Curry seemingly in the twilight of their careers, fans and media pundits have drummed up conversation in recent years about who could be the next “face of the NBA.”
A popular potential choice for some has been Minnesota Timberwolves All-Star Anthony Edwards, who was off to a blazing start this season with a 33.3 points per game scoring average until news broke late Tuesday night that he could be sidelined for up to two months due to an upcoming arthroscopic procedure on his right knee, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania.
You cannot count former 14-year NBA veteran Brendan Haywood among the people who thinks Edwards will ever be the true face of the NBA.
When speaking on a recent episode of his “Tallest Tales” podcast, Haywood said that Edwards’ lack of filter when it comes to how he speaks in public will affect his ability to reach his peak from a marketability standpoint.
“That interview that [Edwards] just did the other day, it was him, LaMelo Ball, some of the other guys on the team,” Haywood said, “it was real, listen I don’t want to say the N-word, but it was real N-wordish.”
The “interview” Haywood was referring to actually was just viral clips circulating of Edwards online after he co-hosted his second annual “Believe That Awards” on his YouTube channel. During the virtual awards show, Edwards and some of his close friends and associates revealed winners of the unique categories developed by the Atlanta native’s “Three Fifths Media” team.
Some of the categories and winners included: White Boy of the Year (music artist Justin Bieber), Bring Ya Ass Award (Edwards’ Wolves teammate LaMelo Ball), Beauty and the Beast Award (women’s tennis star Coco Gauff), Main Character of the Year (Comedian Druski), Iconic Performance of the Year (actor Michael B. Jordan), and Creator of the Year (livestreamer IShowSpeed).
“Ant got the game to be face of the league, but you can’t be out here talking like that, man!” Haywood said. “Like he was talking like he was in the middle of a hood barbershop. I love Anthony Edwards. There’s a time and a place.”
The former NBA champion then expounded on his assessment of Edwards’ behavior.
“Sometimes when you look at Anthony Edwards in some of these interviews, especially this last one … that is why the league is never going to push Anthony Edwards to be the face of the league,” Haywood said. “Because you can’t have the face of the league dropping N-bombs and F-bombs. Talking about, ‘Lightskin versus darkskin, and I’m the dark man brown,’ … nah.”
“It was so ghetto I thought it was AI at first,” Haywood added.
Edwards has faced fines from the NBA in the past for using inappropriate language during postgame interviews with media members, although he has seemed to try and dial it back while at work as his career progresses.
For what it’s worth, though, Edwards does not really seem eager to embrace the unofficial title as the face of the NBA. It has not stopped him from securing a massive endorsement contract with Adidas, and the 6-foot-4 athlete explained his thoughts on the “face of the NBA” conversation last March.
“Man, there’s a lot of sh-t that comes with that face of the league, all that,” Edwards said. “You know what I’m saying? I try, but I just — my people know — I just want to play ball, and go to the crib, and play my game. I’m not really into all the other stuff, but they be wanting me to get into it.”
While the 41-year-old James has long carried the mantle as the unofficial face of the NBA, he sympathizes with Edwards’ reticence to not want the distinction. They helped win a gold medal for USA Basketball together at 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris.
“It’s unfortunate,” James said last February about Edwards’ hesitancy to embrace being called the face of the NBA, “but why do you want to be the face of the league when all the people that cover our game and talk about our game on a day-to-day basis sh-t on everybody? To have that responsibility is weird. It’s weird energy.”
Love him or hate him, it is unlikely Edwards is ever going to stop being his true self — cameras on or off.
