NBA
How long did it take Michael Jordan to win an NBA championship?
If Anthony Edwards can lead the Minnesota Timberwolves to the NBA Finals this year those MJ comparisons will only grow louder.
Michael Jordan is the most famous name in the history of the NBA. A six-time NBA champion who led a Chicago Bulls dynasty to two three-peat triumphs in the 1990s. He played 15 seasons in the NBA and helped to elevate the league, and by extension the sport, to global popularity.
However his legendary status was not a forgone conclusion and Jordan’s Bulls struggled during the early years of his career. After capturing him as the third overall pick in the 1984 NBA Draft the Bull’s did not win their first championship until 1991.
Jordan was named NBA Most Valuable Player in 1988 but it wasn’t until three years later, by which point he was in his seventh professional season, that a 27-year-old Michael Jordan won his first ring. By the time he was 34 he had six NBA championships to his name and had cemented his place in basketball’s Mount Rushmore.
Is Anthony Edwards the next Michael Jordan?
On Thursday the Minnesota Timberwolves host the Dallas Mavericks, knowing that they need to win the remaining three games of their seven-game series to make it to the NBA Finals. The Timberwolves have been inspired by young sensation Anthony Edwards this season and the 22-year-old led the team with 29 points and nine assists in the Game Four victory.
Edwards was selected by Minnesota as the first overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft and he has already been named an NBA All-Star on two occasions. He has averaged 25.9 points per game across the regular season. Jordan was 22 years old in his debut season with the Bulls and put up 28.2 points per game, incredible output for a rookie.
Edwards’ Timberwolves found themselves 3-0 down going into Game 4 of this Western Conference Finals, a deficit that has never previously been overturned in NBA history. If Edwards can inspire a historic comeback to see them through to the final he could claim to have done something that no player, not even Jordan, has managed.
For Edwards, however, thoughts of MJ comparisons are far from his mind as he gears up for Game 5 at Target. In an interview with Malika Andrews on ‘Good Morning America’ Edwards made clear that he will leave his own legacy.
“The first Anthony Edwards, not the next Michael Jordan,” Edwards said he wanted to known as. “I want people to be like, ‘This Anthony Edwards kid, he got his own style like, he maybe got a mix of Michael Jordan in him,’ but I got a trey ball, I can shoot the three. That makes me a little different than Michael Jordan.”