Kevin Durant’s 3-Word Message to Team USA ‘Mentee’ Anthony Edwards on 23rd Birthday

Anthony Edwards is indeed having the time of his life. The young gun received a special birthday wish from his childhood idol, Kevin Durant. Team USA’s star shooting guard has referred to KD as his “favorite player” multiple times. While he had the privilege of going against his idol in the NBA postseason, Edwards got the opportunity to wear the same jersey a few months later. Truly a dream come true for a rising superstar. Following this fairytale, Durant has taken it up a notch with a special 3-worder on Ant-Man’s birthday.

The Minnesota Timberwolves guard, who turned 23 on August 5, received a wholesome wish from the Slim Reaper. He took to his Threads handle and wrote, “Happy Birthday 5…..” This past season was undeniably life-changing for Anthony Edwards. He did a lot of special things on the court. Stepping into his 4th season with the Wolves, Ant-Man had a break-out season, averaging almost 26 points. He didn’t just stop at the regular season, the rising star spearheaded his team for its first-ever playoff series win in 20 years.

Even though the team fell short in the Conference Finals, he put up a grand show, averaging 27.6 points in the postseason! Fast forward to now, Ant-Man is brushing his shoulders against his idol KD and other legends in Paris amid Team USA’s quest for gold.

The Athletic’s Joe Vardon, in an attempt to describe Kevin Durant and Anthony Edwards‘ relationship in the Team USA camp, drew a parallel to the 2012 Olympics.

Heading into this Olympics campaign, Ant-Man had the jitters of playing alongside his idol, as he said, “I definitely still got butterflies there waiting for that to happen.” Vardon rolled back the calendar to when KD looked up to Kobe Bryant as a mentor in the 2012 London Olympics, 12 years ago. Fast forward to now, nothing has changed, only the roles have reversed. Kevin picked up the mentor role and the popularly-deemed-next MJ picked the mentee role. However, there’s a key matchup that he has his eyes on.

Anthony Edwards reveals his “biggest” dream

The 23-year-old has had an impressive run in the Paris Olympics, coming off the bench. Playing alongside the superstars of the league, Anthony Edwards hasn’t seemed to have gotten lost in the overpowered stardom and balling abilities. In fact, the rising hooper went on to overshadow LeBron James and Kevin Durant in the last group-stage game against Puerto Rico, where he led the team with 26 points in just 17 minutes. Notably, the dominant performance included a show-stopper moment when Ant launched a windmill dunk!

Amid this successful run on the biggest international stage, he had a pleading request to coach Kerr to fulfill one of his dreams. During an interview, Ant-Man said, “I love that he’s (Durant) coming off the bench. I get to play with him, so I hope coach keeps bringing him off the bench. I get to pass it to him. He gets to pass it back. That’s probably one of my biggest dreams ever, so that’s dope.” 

Since Kevin Durant had recently recovered from his calf injury, Steve Kerr had to put him in the second unit. And it’s definitely a blessing in disguise tactically for Team USA and emotionally for the rising superstar. With three more games left in Dream 2.0’s gold quest, Kerr recently assured that Durant would play from the bench.

Will the Slim Reaper and Ant-Man create something special off the bench, heading into the knockouts? Let us know in the comments.

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