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I can’t believe I’m about to type what I’m about to type.
There’s this guy, a 22-year-old, who flies through the air and dunks viciously, sticks jumpers from long range in peoples’ faces, backs people down in the post, spins and fades away and swishes shots in their faces, and from the outside blows by defenders with a rocket-speed first step and dipsy doodles for layups. He cannot be stopped and everybody knows it.
Who does this sound like?
MJ, Michael Jordan, His Airness.
But that guy has long since retired and is 61 years old. This 22-year-old is Anthony Edwards, the new tantalizing NBA talent from another planet who put on an MJ-esque masterpiece theatre against the Phoenix Suns sweeping them into darkness in four straight games because he could not be dealt with. In the closeout game, the six-foot-four phenom threw shade on the hopes of the Suns with 40 points and a Michealangelo-like dunk on six foot 11 Kevin Durant.
He had 33 and 36 in two other games in the series and put the basketball universe on high alert: Anthony Air Antness Edwards has arrived and has a real chance to become the world’s best player.
The question now is whether he really is “the new sheriff in town” as MJ once told Larry Bird and Magic Johnson as MJ became the world’s best player.
Is he going to show the world that he’s better than The Joker, Nikola Jokic, the current sheriff and undisputed best hooper on planet Earth who is about to win his third MVP in four years and should have been given the award four years in a row?
Ant’s Minnesota Timberwolves are now set to take on Joker’s Denver Nuggets, the defending world champions, in the Western Conference semi-finals.
Will this time the joke be on the Joker? Will Air Antness kid Joker into being a fool, dunk on this Serbian savant, dethrone him and declare to the world that he, not Joker, rules the basketball kingdom? Is he the ultimate riddler, not the Joker?
Thus far Joker’s still fooling everyone in the league. He dominated the Lakers, as he always does, leading his team in assists, points, and rebounds. In one game in the series, he scored 33 points, grabbed 14 rebounds, and dished 14 assists. Last night in the series-clinching win over LA he had 25 points, 20 rebounds, and 9 assistants. Ho hum for him; impossible for everyone else.
Who does that? Pretty much no one ever in the history of the NBA.
Ever.
Only the Joker.
But now we have a battle for ultimate basketball bragging rights about who really is the best basketball player in the world.
People thought Air Antness was talented all the way back in high school in Atlanta when he averaged 29 points per game, was a McDonalds All-American, and was a Pop Warner nationally rated football running back at age 10.
Speaking of 10, Bo Derek was a 10 in a bathing suit. This guy is a 10 in a basketball uniform.
The Timberwolves drafted him number one after his one year at the University of Georgia when he was all-SEC. Since then he’s been steadily climbing the basketball totem pole averaging 21 his first year, 24 the next, and 26 this season.
He’s been named to the NBA All-Star Game twice. They knew he would be good in the Association, but they didn’t know he would elevate to the air levels of MJ as he did against the Suns.
A star is on the rise in front of our eyes reminding us of his style of basketball’s majestic marvel, MJ. This young guy is like him, a beautiful basketball ballet dancer and high-riser and floater in the air for so much longer than other players. He doesn’t seem to need to come back to Earth anytime soon.
Now he faces a star not just on the rise but rather a star at the peak of the mountaintop staring down at all looking to dismantle his dominance.
Up flies Air Ant.
There stands the Joker laughing and kidding around and killing all opponents.
Will Joker hold him off or will this upstart superstar make a joke of the Joker?
That’s the question.
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Sammy Sportface, a sports blogger, galvanizes, inspires, and amuses The Baby Boomer Brotherhood. And you can learn about his vision and join this group's Facebook page here:
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