3 May 2024

What will Vikings’ depth chart look like next season? Here’s a projection.

by | posted in: News | 0

The competitive rebuild is finally starting to take shape for the Vikings.

Though the term itself has been weaponized against general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah at times since he uttered those words, it has actually provided a good depiction of how the Vikings have operated over the past couple of seasons. They have kept pieces in places to compete for the playoffs in the short term. They have also pushed things forward with an eye toward contending for a Super Bowl in the long term.

The inflection point came this offseason, as the Vikings moved on from veteran franchise quarterback Kirk Cousins, signed journeyman quarterback Sam Darnold in the ofseason, then drafted rookie quarterback J.J. McCarthy. Meanwhile, the rest of the roster has a much different look than it did when Adofo-Mensah and head coach Kevin O’Connell joined forces in the name of collaboration.

Here’s a projection of the Vikings’ depth chart with rookie minicamp coming up next week:

Quarterback (2)

Starter: Sam Darnold

Backup: J.J. McCarthy

Out: Nick Mullens, Jaren Hall

Analysis: Patience. That’s the word most fans have to come to grips with over the next couple of months. There’s absolutely no way the Vikings are going to rush McCarthy’s development. He’s too important to their future. That’s why they went out and spent money on Darnold on the open market. Now, if McCarthy vastly outperforms Darnold in training camp, that could change the plan of attack. The thought of cutting Mullens and Hall comes down to there simply not being enough roster spots to go around.

Running Back (3)

Starter: Aaron Jones

Backups: Ty Chandler, Kene Nwangwu

Out: Myles Gaskin, DeWayne McBride

Analysis: The ground attack should be much improved with Jones as the main ball carrier. He’s a veteran presence who has averaged 5.0 yards per carry in his career. This should give Chandler more time to develop rather than having to shoulder too much of the load so early in his career. As for Nwangwu, he likely will make the team thanks to NFL rule changes, which makes having a kickoff returner a valuable asset.

Fullback (1)

Starter: C.J. Ham

Backup: N/A

Out: N/A

Analysis: There’s no competition for Ham. Not only has he consistently proved his worth throughout his NFL career, he has developed into a revered leader in the locker room along the way. He’s not going anywhere.

Receiver (5)

Starters: Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison

Backups: Brandon Powell, Trent Sherfield, Jalen Nailor

Out: Trishton Jackson, N’Keal Harry, Lucky Jackson, Daylen Baldwin, Malik Knowles, Thayer Thomas, Devron Harper, Ty James, Jeshaun Jones

Analysis: It’s only a matter of time before Jefferson signs his contract extension. He is the best player in the league at his position, and the Vikings aren’t letting him get away. The emergence of Addison as a rookie last year provides a perfect complement to Jefferson. The rest of the contributors at the position comes in the form of Powell, who the coaching staff adores for his work ethic; Sherfield, who signed in free agency; and Nailor, who has shown flashes behind closed doors. Look for the Vikings to add another body before training camp for some added competition.

Tight End (4)

Starter: T.J. Hockenson

Backups: Josh Oliver, Johnny Mundt, Nick Muse

Out: Trey Knox

Analysis: The caveat with Hockenson is that he might not be ready for Week 1. He’s still recovering from surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament. If Hockenson isn’t available, the trio of Oliver, Mundt and Muse will combine to fill the void until he’s ready to return.

Offensive Line (9)

Starters: Christian Darrisaw (left tackle), Blake Brandel (left guard), Garrett Bradbury (center), Ed Ingram (right guard), Brian O’Neill (right tackle)

Backups: David Quessenberry, Walter Rouse, Dan Feeney, Michael Jurgens

Out: Henry Byrd, Tyrese Robinson, Matthew Cindric, Jeremy Flax, Doug Nester, Spencer Rolland

Analysis: The starting offensive line seems to be set in stone until further notice. The bookends are elite with Darrisaw and O’Neill in place at the two tackle spots. The man in the middle is also in good shape with Bradbury coming into his own. The slots occupied by Brandel and Ingram leave something to be desired on the surface. Still, a reunion with veteran Dalton Risner doesn’t seem to be in the cards, unless he lowers his asking price.

Defensive Line (6)

Starters: Harrison Phillips (nose tackle), Jonathan Bullard (defensive end), Jerry Tillery (defensive end)

Backups: Jonah Williams, Jaquelin Roy, Levi Drake Rodriguez

Out: Tyler Manoa, Taki Taimani

Analysis: After watching Phillips play the most snaps of his career, the Vikings made it a priority this offseason to add more impact players up front. That explains why they retained Bullard, signed Tillery and Williams in free agency, and targeted Rodriguez in the draft as a dart throw with some upside.

Edge Rusher (6)

Starters: Jonathan Greenard, Andrew Van Ginkel

Backups: Dallas Turner, Pat Jones II, Jihad Ward, Gabriel Murphy

Out: Andre Carter, Owen Porter, Bo Richter

Analysis: The blow of losing star edge rusher Danielle Hunter was lessened by adding Greenard and Van Ginkel. Add in the surprise addition of Turner in the draft and the Vikings have done a good job adding talent at the position. Though no single player will be able to produce at the same level as Hunter, the group as a whole should still be able to put pressure on the passer. The general consensus is that Murphy was a steal as an undrafted free agent. He’s worth keeping an eye on over the next couple of months.

Linebacker (3)

Starters: Blake Cashman, Ivan Pace Jr.

Backups: Kamu Grugier-Hill

Out: Brian Asamoah II, Abraham Beauplan, K.J. Cloyd, Dallas Gant, Donovan Manuel

Analysis: The combination of Cashman and Pace gives the Vikings a lot of speed at the position. That should give defensive coordinator Brian Flores some options as he schemes up ways to make life miserable on opposing teams. The signing of Grugier-Hill makes it tough to see a path forward for Asamoah.

Cornerback (7)

Starters: Byron Murphy Jr., Shaq Griffin, Akayleb Evans

Backups: Mekhi Blackmon, Andrew Booth Jr., Khyree Jackson, NaJee Thompson

Out: Joejuan Williams, A.J. Green III, Jaylin Williams, Dwight McGlothern

Analysis: As much as this still probably won’t be a Vikings position of strength, they did a lot to to address some glaring needs. The experience that Griffin provides can’t be overstated. He’s started a lot of games in the league and plays with an aggressive style. That should fit well with Murphy, Evans, Blackmon and Booth. There is also something intriguing about Jackson when looking at his 6-foot-4, 195-pound frame and envisioning it on the outside.

Safety (4)

Starters: Harrison Smith, Camryn Bynum, Josh Metellus

Backups: Jay Ward

Out: Lewis Cine, Theo Jackson

Analysis: This will be the straw that stirs the drink for the defense. The way Flores has been able to deploy Smith, Bynum and Metellus makes the Vikings very difficult to scout on a weekly basis. You never know exactly where they’re going to line up on any given play. The surprise here would be Cine not making the team. He will get a chance to prove his worth in training camp.

Kicker (1)

Starter: Will Reichard

Backup: N/A

Out: John Parker Romo

Analysis: If the Vikings didn’t think Reichard could beat out Romo, they wouldn’t have drafted him in the first place. This likely won’t be much of a competition.

Punter (1)

Starter: Ryan Wright

Backup: N/A

Out: Seth Vernon

Analysis: It’s hard to imagine the Vikings moving on from Wright. He’s a known commodity, and that shouldn’t be overlooked.

Long Snapper (1)

Starter: Andrew DePaola

Backup: N/A

Out: N/A

Analysis: Not much to say here other than the fact that DePaola will be the long snapper next season.

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3 May 2024

Analysis: Trump lurches into vacuum created by Biden’s days of silence on campus protests

by | posted in: Society | 0

By John T. Bennett, CQ-Roll Call

WASHINGTON — Protests on college campuses related to the Israel-Hamas war and humanitarian crisis inside Gaza that turned violent this week handed President Joe Biden a political headache and former President Donald Trump a new attack line. The unrest showed the risks of being the incumbent and allowed Trump to — once again — push his hardline views as disrupter in chief.

Biden and his campaign aides have mostly dismissed criticism from Arab American groups for months over his “ironclad” backing of Israel. Meanwhile, thousands of Palestinian civilians have been killed in Israel’s brutal response i to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack that killed more than 1,000 Israeli citizens.

Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, jousted with a number of reporters Wednesday over the protests — but she never directly addressed them nor gave a clear reason why Biden had not publicly done so.

Biden’s seeming goal of avoiding ownership of the campus violence and his silence, which ended with previously unannounced remarks Thursday morning from the White House, created a vacuum at the start of the week — one that Trump seemed happy to fill.

Protestors chant outside The City College Of New York (CUNY) one day after the NYPD cracked down on protest camps at both Columbia University and CCNY on May 1, 2024 in New York City. A heavy police presence surrounded both campuses on Tuesday evening and cleared the tent encampments set up by pro-Palestinian protesters. Classes at both schools have been moved virtually to online learning in response to the recent campus unrest. (Alex Kent/Getty Images)

“The protests shine a perfect light on the two candidates’ contrasting styles. There is really no federal jurisdiction over the incidents of campus unrest. As a result, you see Biden playing a sober, hands-off role, using the bully pulpit cautiously,” former Florida GOP Rep. David Jolly said in an email. “Conversely, Trump and his allies are reaching for hyperbole and spectacle, promising crackdowns and a boorish strength without any grounding in the realities of governing, nor the delicate balance between rights of speech and assembly, violations of the rights of others, and the complexities of a war we don’t control.

“Biden is exercising the presidency within its contours. Trump promises to shatter those contours.”

As Biden was out of public view for four days after headlining a Washington gala on Saturday evening, he drew fire from all sides — including Arab American groups who have led anti-Biden vote drives in swing states during the Democratic primary.

“The use of city police to dismantle peaceful protests on college campuses in the United States, coupled with proposed legislation to punish Americans for criticizing Israel, is a dangerous assault on our democracy and a sign of the very creeping authoritarianism infecting so much of the world,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now, said in a statement.

“The Biden administration has been a shameful accomplice in sacrificing American free speech and civil society at the altar of Israeli interests and demands,” Whitson added.

Trump also pounced as Biden was out of sight fighting, in his own words, “a bit of a cold.”

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks while dropping in on the “Teachers of the Year” State Dinner after returning to the White House on May 2, 2024 in Washington, DC. President Biden and first lady Jill Biden invited more than 50 educators from across the country to the White House for the the first-ever “Teachers of the Year” State Dinner to recognize their commitments to students’ learning. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)

“To every college president, I say remove the [protesters’] encampments, immediately. Vanquish the radicals, and take back our campuses for all of the normal students who want a safe place from which to learn,” he said Wednesday at a campaign rally in Waukesha, Wis.

“When you see that video of raging lunatics and Hamas sympathizers at Columbia and other colleges,” Trump added, his thought trailing off as he started a new one. “But when you look at it, I say, where did these people come from? I don’t know people like that.”

He also made the claim that Biden’s southern border and migration policies would “create the conditions for an Oct. 7th-style attack right here in America.”

Trump made similar claims later Wednesday at another campaign rally in another Rust Belt swing state, Michigan. As he spoke, Biden was meeting with Asian American donors at a fancy Washington, D.C., hotel, calling India and Japan, along with China and Russia, “xenophobic” — but not mentioning the campus unrest nor the situation in the Middle East, according to a transcript released by the White House.

‘Without violence’

It was not until late Thursday morning that Biden broke his silence on the matter, which lasted for more than a week.

Biden condemned college campus protests over the Israel-Hamas conflict that have turned violent, saying from the White House’s Roosevelt Room that “violent protest is not protected” under U.S. laws.

“It’s against the law when violence occurs, destroying property is not a peaceful protest — it’s against the law. Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campuses, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduations, none of this is a peaceful protest,” the president said.

“The protests shine a perfect light on the two candidates’ contrasting styles.” — former Florida GOP Rep. David Jolly

“Threatening people, intimidating people, instilling fear in people is not peaceful protest. It’s against the law,” Biden said. “Dissent is essential to democracy, but dissent must never lead to disorder. … I understand people have strong feelings and deep convictions. In America, we respect the right, and protect the right, for them to express that.

“But it doesn’t mean anything goes. It needs to be done without violence, without destruction, without hate and within the law.”

Jolly said that “politically, any domestic unrest is bad for an incumbent — both know this, so Biden is being careful not to own what are otherwise internal university matters, while Trump and his allies are working hard to nationalize resentment and hostility toward the protests and in turn pin that concern on the president.”

Before his Thursday appearance, Biden had not commented on the campus protests since April 22. That was before some turned violent or law enforcement officers were called in by the leaders of several major universities to quell unrest and vandalism.

That day, Biden was asked by a reporter about the protests. His response during an Earth Day event in Triangle, Va. was: “I condemn the antisemitic protests. That’s why I have set up a program to deal with that. I also condemn those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians.”

Brad Bannon, a Democratic political strategist, said in an email that “the carnage in Gaza and the college campus confrontations here are a serious problem for President Biden.”

“Things will get even worse for him if Israeli strongman [Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu widens the conflict and invades the southern Gaza city of Rafah,” he added.

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“The chaos here and abroad threatens the president’s reelection campaign. The ghastly images of dead Palestinian children have turned young Democrats against the Israeli invasion of Gaza,” he said. “The president needs overwhelming support from his base to win reelection. The violent clashes between police and students contribute to voter concerns that the nation is out of control and headed in the wrong direction with Biden in charge.”

That’s just the message that Trump was delivering to loyalists and anyone else listening during his Rust Belt campaign stops.

“We do not need a jihad in the United States of America. We do not need our once-great cities to become hotbeds of terrorism,” Trump said in Wisconsin.

“And on day one of the Trump presidency, I’m restoring the travel ban, suspending refugee admissions and keeping terrorists the hell out of our country like I had it before,” he said. “I had it before … so good, you know, when Biden went to the beach all the time.”

‘Where’s SLEEPY JOE?’

Rather than addressing the the campus unrest in real-time, Biden’s team at the White House and his campaign were focused on other issues, including abortion and student loan debt relief, as well as a White House push for Congress to reload a COVID-19 pandemic-era broadband subsidy for underserved areas.

Trump even posted a question on Truth Social on Wednesday morning: “Where’s SLEEPY JOE? He’s SLEEPING, that’s where!!!”

Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the press as he arrives for his trial for allegedly covering up hush money payments at Manhattan Criminal Court on May 3, 2024 in New York City. Trump was charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records last year, which prosecutors say was an effort to hide a potential sex scandal, both before and after the 2016 presidential election. Trump is the first former U.S. president to face trial on criminal charges. (Curtis Means-Pool/Getty Images)

That became a common question by Tuesday night, as New York Police Department officers in tactical gear entered protest-riddled Columbia University and arrested protesters who had barricaded themselves inside a building. The same night, law enforcement stepped in when protesters clashed at the University of California at Los Angeles.

As campus protests heated up late last week, Biden was off the public grid for almost 12 hours, spending the night in New York City before turning up — unannounced — on SiriusXM’s “The Howard Stern Show.” White House and campaign aides had little — sometimes nothing — to say about Biden’s whereabouts and activities each time he was out of sight.

On Wednesday, Jean-Pierre did not use her opening remarks during a media briefing to address the previous night’s sometimes-violent scenes and arrests. Instead, she announced a Biden speech to commemorate the Holocaust and criticized states’ abortion bans.

Trump has tried in recent weeks to drive a further wedge between Biden and Arab American voters, even telling reporters on April 23 at a Manhattan courthouse that Biden is “no friend of the Arab world” — ignoring that Biden has helped steer the Middle East away, for now, from a wider conflict that could put Israel against Iran and possibly other Arab countries.

“Trump, as usual, ignores the nuances of diplomacy and goes full speed ahead in support of Israel’s actions. Meanwhile, the president criticizes Netanyahu without acting against him,” Bannon said. “The president needs to cut through the fog and make a clean break with the prime minister if he expands the conflict.”

©2024 CQ-Roll Call, Inc., All Rights Reserved. Visit cqrollcall.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

3 May 2024

RFK Jr. could be a spoiler in November. But will it help Biden or Trump?

by | posted in: Politics | 0

Seema Mehta | Los Angeles Times (TNS)

LOS ANGELES — Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign was once viewed as a quixotic quest by a scion of a storied political family — an environmental warrior who sullied his family’s name most recently by aligning himself with a political party founded by a segregationist to get on the November ballot in California.

But a combination of voter apathy about President Biden and former President Trump, the two main parties’ presumptive nominees, and the Kennedy campaign’s successful targeting of ballot qualification rules across the nation has prompted growing alarm among Democrats and Republicans alike.

“When you have nail-bitingly close elections, nearly any candidate can be a spoiler,” said Thad Kousser, a political science professor at UC San Diego. “Now, the interesting thing, unlike a Jill Stein [a perennial Green Party candidate], it’s not 100% clear which major party candidate he hurts most. That uncertainty is going to lead to a lot of churning on what the parties do … to keep him off the ballot.”

Kennedy, the son of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (D-N.Y.) and nephew of President John F. Kennedy, has no real chance of being elected to the White House in November. However, the Californian could be a spoiler in the race, tilting the vote. Two names are frequently raised: H. Ross Perot in the 1992 race and Ralph Nader in 2000, though there is debate about how much their candidacies resulted in Bill Clinton and George W. Bush winning their respective elections.

Kennedy has qualified to appear on the ballots of three states, most recently California, and his campaign claims to have collected enough signatures to appear on the ballots of seven others, including Nevada.

In California, the American Independent Party submitted paperwork to have Kennedy appear on the ballot as its standard-bearer, the candidate announced this week.

George Wallace, a segregationist Alabama governor who opposed federal civil rights laws, helped found the party and ran on its ticket in the 1968 presidential campaign. Kennedy’s father, a staunch supporter of such rights, was assassinated in Los Angeles during that campaign.

Leaders of the party, which currently exists only in California, say it has disavowed its segregationist roots and is focused on conservatism and the Constitution. In a video Kennedy released Tuesday, he called Wallace a “bigot” who “was antithetical to everything my father believed in.”

Mainstream Democrats are incredulous about Kennedy’s association with the party. When Wallace stood in a schoolhouse door at the University of Alabama, trying to block two Black students from registering, President Kennedy called in the Alabama National Guard at a time when his brother, Robert, was the nation’s attorney general.

Paul Mitchell, a veteran Democratic strategist, said he previously believed Kennedy had a shot of winning California based purely on his last name. That is no longer the case, based on how he has run his campaign and whom he has chosen to associate with, Mitchell said.

“If he was a Kennedy and acting like a Kennedy and professional, I wouldn’t put [a California victory] out of the bounds,” said Mitchell, who noted that Kennedy associated with the fringe party after gathering a paltry number of signatures for a political party he was trying to form. “Now he’s a loony anti-vaxxer conspiracy theorist and running a campaign like a loon. It’s so embarrassing.”

Biden supporters have been concerned about Kennedy for some time. The Democratic National Committee earlier this year established a team to oppose third-party candidates, chiefly Kennedy. Their first act was filing a Federal Election Commission complaint arguing that Kennedy’s campaign coordinated inappropriately with a Super PAC to qualify Kennedy for some states’ ballots.

“We know this is going to be a close election and we’re not going to take anything for granted,” said Matt Corridoni, a DNC spokesman working on the anti-third party effort, noting that the biggest donor to a pro-Kennedy PAC is a Trump mega-donor and that a New York-based campaign official pitched his candidacy by arguing that Kennedy would help Trump defeat Biden.

In April, several members of the Kennedy family endorsed Biden, including Kerry Kennedy, sister of the presidential candidate.

“We want to make crystal clear our feelings that the best way forward for America is to reelect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for four more years,” she said at a campaign event in Philadelphia.

On Wednesday, Kennedy challenged Biden to agree that whichever of them did worse in a head-to-head poll in the fall would drop out of the race to prevent Trump being elected to a second term.

But Republicans including Trump have recently signaled growing concern about Kennedy eating into the former president’s support.

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“RFK Jr. is a Democrat ‘Plant,’ a Radical Left Liberal who’s been put in place in order to help Crooked Joe Biden, the Worst President in the History of the United States, get Re-Elected,” Trump posted on Truth Social on April 26, arguing that the candidate opposes gun rights and the military and supports raising taxes, open borders and radical environmental policy. “A Vote for Junior would essentially be a WASTED PROTEST VOTE, that could swing either way, but would only swing against the Democrats if Republicans knew the true story about him.”

Trump posted that before a Monmouth University poll released Monday found that after voters were told about Kennedy’s skepticism of vaccines, their views changed — prior polling showed that Kennedy pulled support evenly from Biden and Trump.

In the new poll, the percentage of Republicans who said they would support Kennedy nearly doubled to almost one out of five after being told about his views about vaccines, while Democrats’ support dropped sharply to roughly 10%.

Kennedy has also been receiving attention on conservative media, such as Wednesday evening on “Jesse Watters Primetime” on Fox News Channel, where he argued that his campaign’s polling shows him winning in a head-to-head matchup against either Biden or Trump.

But “if I’m in the race, in a three-way race, I lose because people are voting out of fear, because they think the other guy — a vote for me is going to put somebody they hate in office,” he said. “But if I go head to head with either of them, I win.”

Trump’s advisors are piqued by Kennedy receiving attention from such outlets.

“For the life of me, I can’t understand why anyone on a conservative platform would feature the likes of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who believes the NRA is a terrorist organization, whose positions on the environment are more radical than [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez], and who believes in a 70% tax bracket,” said Chris LaCivita, a lead strategist for Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee’s chief of staff.

“From our standpoint, only one person is more liberal than Joe Biden and that’s Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,” LaCivita said, adding that Kennedy “is a blank canvas and we are going to fill it with paint.”

©2024 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

3 May 2024

Timberwolves’ Anthony Edwards is quickly becoming face of the NBA

by | posted in: News | 0

His answers to questions in media availabilities have been viral sensations ever since he bragged about his ability to dominate any activity to local sports broadcaster Marney Gellner for a “Wolves +” podcast.

His highlights are just as enthralling, dating back to his epic dunk over then-Raptors forward Yuta Watanabe.

Since his rookie season, everything Anthony Edwards has done has screamed superstar. And there were moments when the Timberwolves guard would get his 15 minutes of fame. But then his name would again fade to the backdrop of the national basketball conversation in favor of the likes of LeBron James, Steph Curry and Kevin Durant.

His jersey sales have never threatened the top of the NBA store’s best-selling charts. He’s never received an exorbitant number of all-star votes.

The question always lingered: When would this made-for-TV 22-year-old star finally achieve high-end, sustained stardom?

The time has officially come.

There was a week between the Timberwolves finishing off a four-game sweep of Phoenix in Round 1 of the NBA playoffs and the opening of their Western Conference semifinal series Saturday in Denver. The official NBA social media accounts still managed to fill the feeds with Anthony Edwards content throughout the week. Edwards’ top 10 dunks of his career, his top 10 blocks of his career, his top 10 toughest shots of his career. Even his best “mic’d up moments” made an appearance.

You name it – if Anthony Edwards’ face was on it, it was going on an NBA account. Because people can’t get enough of him.

The Wolves guard was the seventh-most-viewed player on NBA social channels during the regular season, per the League. Over the first week of the playoffs, he generated 100 million video views across all NBA digital platforms, trailing only James.

A video of Edwards dancing his way out of Phoenix’s arena after Game 4 generated 6.6 million views on Twitter.

His new Adidas signature shoe flies off shelves. He has starred in recent commercials for Sprite and Bose.

“He’s the face of the league, I’ve been saying that,” Wolves forward Karl-Anthony Towns said. “He hates when I say it, but it’s true.”

That title for so long has been held by James. James, Durant and Curry have been the superstars on which the entire NBA centered. But they’re all in the back half of their 30s now. Curry didn’t make the playoffs, and Durant and James were each ousted in Round 1.

There have long been questions about who basketball fans would throw their support behind after those three were gone. International players such as Luka Doncic, NIkola Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo have emerged in recent years, but Edwards — whether he likes it or not — has thrown his hat into the ring.

“He is the future of American basketball,” ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said on NBA Today.

It’s partially because of his personality. Edwards has a magnetic quality to him, which quickly sucked in Timberwolves fans and teammates alike. He has a strong sense of humor and the charisma to take over any room. Even when he yells at teammates, they can’t help but smile back.

“I think that the people gravitated to him because he was just a likable dude,” Wolves assistant coach Micah Nori said. “I think anytime that you’re not putting on a front or you’re not faking, you don’t have to change who you are, whether you’re in front of the media, or you’re out doing commercials or playing a game. Anthony Edwards is who he is, he knows who he is, and I think that’s why he’s able to accept it so well.”

But that’s always been the case since Edwards entered the NBA as the No. 1 overall pick in 2020. What has changed between then and now is the winning.

It’s easy to overlook a young star playing up in Minnesota for a team that is scraping through the play-in, only to get bounced in the first round of the playoffs.

But there’s no ignoring a young guard who’s jawing in Durant’s face after burying a jumper over the future hall of famer, spiking his crotch after a full-court assist resulting in a Rudy Gobert and-1 and pouring in 31 points in the second half of a closeout game that sent Durant and Devin Booker home via a series sweep.

That’s the stuff of legends.

Wolves guard Mike Conley was asked this week on TNT’s pregame show who Edwards reminded him of. His answer: “A young Michael Jordan.”

“Honestly. He’s unbelievable. I think more than anything with him has been his mentality,” Conley said. “I’ve never met a guy or been a teammate with a guy who believes more in himself than Anthony Edwards. I think he thinks he’s the best player ever to play the game, to walk on earth. You can’t tell him any different. He’s going to go out there and he has a mean streak to him.”

That exact mean streak reminds NBA analyst and hall of famer Charles Barkley of Jordan and even the late Kobe Bryant.

“They would kill you to win a game. There’s not many players (like that) in today’s game — everybody wants to be buddy-buddy,” Barkley said on TNT after Edwards put the Wolves up 3-0 on Phoenix. “But man, Anthony Edwards is (putting) everyone on notice: ‘Yeah, I’m not going to wait for y’all to give me anything, I’m going to take it all.’ And I love it.”

“A superstar is official. He is here, do you understand? There was MJ. There was Kobe. And now there is Anthony Edwards,” ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith said recently on First Take. “It’s like that. Ladies and gentlemen, a superstar has officially arrived in the NBA.”

Yet this superstar often shies away from taking credit. He declined to even do local media in Minnesota on Thursday. He initially walked away from the chance to do a national postgame interview after the Wolves’ Game 1 victory over Phoenix, before circling back to fulfill the obligation.

Any interview Edwards does is opened with praise for those around him. Timberwolves president of basketball operations Tim Connelly said the young guard is just concerned about his teammates, family, friends and competition. It’s why the Wolves are so confident Edwards will take his newfound leap in fame in stride.

“There’s not a right or wrong approach. Some guys are really about the ancillary things — the brand. I think Ant’s about the competition,” Connelly said. “He’s got a great support system, wonderful people around him. He’s allowed himself to be coached hard, which is really a testament to both Ant and coach (Chris) Finch. I think for Ant, he’s just focused on Game 1 and the other stuff is just noise.”

Nori noted Edwards is flush with swagger. He knows how good he is.

“But the fact that he still doesn’t push people away, and … everybody talks about between confidence and arrogance — and he’s just a very, very confident person, and he puts in the work and he trusts his abilities,” Nori said. “And that’s fun.”

For teammates, coaches and spectators alike.

“Anthony Edwards has moved into that tier 1 of, if he’s on, I’m watching the T-Wolves,” NBA analyst and former player J.J. Redick recently said on the Pardon My Take podcast.

Redick noted whoever the “face of the league” is needs to be someone who wins at a high level. Edwards currently has one series victory, though even that has proven to be enough to thrust him into the discussion.

“He’s certainly going to be in that conversation for the next 10 years. He is entertaining as a player. He’s got the game that I think people gravitate to, the same way that Jordan had a certain game, Kobe had a certain game, AI had a certain game, Steph, right?” Redick said on Pardon My Take. “There’s the flash, the fundamentals. Some of the footwork stuff that he does is so underrated. And then he’s got the (edge) to him, because he’s brash, he’s competitive.”

And he might be just a few wins away from being the first name sports fans think of when the NBA comes to mind. After every Timberwolves playoff victory, a swarm of people race to social media to profess their fandom for their new favorite player.

“I think No. 5, that we have running around here in Minnesota, has a chance to be the face of this league,” Nori said to Chad Hartman on WCCO Radio on Thursday, “and be one of those guys that’s up there battling to take that MVP from a Nikola Jokic.”

“Right now, I’ll say Jokic,” Smith said on First Take when asked who’s the face of the league. “But if (Edwards) sends him home, it’s a different answer.”

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