Former Georgia Bulldog and current Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards has been named a member of the USA National Team in this year’s upcoming Olympic Games in Paris.
Edwards joined Georgia before the 2019-20 season after being listed as 247Sports’ No. 1 overall player in the country, coming out of Holy Spirit Preparatory School in Atlanta. He is the highest-rated recruit in Georgia basketball history.
In Edwards’ only season with the Bulldogs, which was cut short before the postseason began due to COVID-19, he averaged 19 points per game in addition to about five rebounds and three assists. His 610 total points on the season are the 10th-most ever by an SEC freshman, and the seventh-most in a season by any Georgia player. He was named SEC Freshman of the Year after the season.
Although Georgia didn’t see much success in Edwards’ lone season, he quickly became a walking highlight reel. His most memorable moment as a Bulldog was arguably his 33-point outburst in the second half of Georgia’s early-season loss to Michigan State. Even though Georgia lost, it was clear that Edwards was a legitimate scoring machine by just his sixth college game.
The Minnesota Timberwolves saw the same thing in Edwards that Georgia did and made him the No. 1 overall pick of the 2020 NBA draft. Since then, he’s become one of the fastest-rising stars in the league. This past season, Edwards was named an All-Star for the second time in his career and helped the Timberwolves win 56 games and secure the Western Conference’s third seed.
Edwards now joins one of the most loaded Team USA rosters in recent history, with NBA superstars like LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry headlining the roster. Anything short of a fifth straight gold medal would be deemed a disappointment.
It’s his first Olympic Games, but Edwards has significant experience representing the USA in international play. He turned heads last summer with his performance in the FIBA World Cup in the Philippines where he led Team USA in scoring. The USA national team is in search of redemption this summer after a shocking loss to Germany in last year’s FIBA World Cup semifinal.
Team USA will be part of “Group C” in the preliminary round competition from July 28 to August 3 in Lille, France. The medal round games will take place from August 6-10 in Paris.