Anthony Edwards has never been shy about his confidence or charisma, but when you ask him whether he considers himself a superstar, he almost laughs the idea off. After Minnesota’s latest win against the Kings, he was asked about pressure, expectations, and the spotlight that usually follows players at his level. His response felt casual, almost too casual for someone carrying a franchise.
“I don’t think it’s no pressure. I don’t think I’m under a spotlight. I don’t really think I’m a superstar. I think to some people I may be. But to myself, I’m really not. So I don’t really put no pressure on myself. They got other guys in the league for that.”
It’s a funny contrast because his play this season looks exactly like what you’d expect from a rising face of the NBA. Edwards is averaging 27.5 points on 49.2 percent shooting, knocking down threes at a blistering 46.2 percent clip. He’s the engine of the Timberwolves’ offense, the one player who can break defenses down whenever they hit a dry spell. Even during their shaky start, he stayed steady. Now they’re 8-4, climbing again, and you can see who drives everything they do.
But Edwards’ insistence on avoiding that ‘superstar’ label isn’t him being humble for the cameras. It’s part of how he keeps himself grounded. He plays his best when he feels loose, not when he’s carrying the weight of what that word implies. Calling himself a superstar would change how the outside world frames him, and probably how he frames himself. He doesn’t want any part of that shift yet. He still sees a player learning, growing, trying to figure out how to lead a team through the hardest moments of a season.
Minnesota needs this version of Edwards, the focused one, the hungry one. They’ve been to the Western Conference Finals two straight years and lost both times. Those runs changed the franchise, but they didn’t satisfy anyone in that locker room. This season is about pushing a little deeper. It’s about finding out whether their defensive identity holds and whether Edwards can carry them in a seven-game series against elite competition.
Julius Randle, Rudy Gobert, Mike Conley, and Jaden McDaniels all matter. But everything Minnesota wants to be hinges on how far Edwards can take them.
For now, Edwards wants the game to speak. He doesn’t feel pressure because he refuses to recognize it. He doesn’t feel the spotlight because he doesn’t give it space in his mind. But if he keeps playing like this, the league is going to keep pushing him into the superstar tier, whether he claims it publicly or not.
