{"id":2060390,"date":"2026-07-24T19:22:58","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T16:22:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2060390"},"modified":"2026-07-24T19:22:58","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T16:22:58","slug":"how-anthony-edwards-playfully-jabbed-lebron-james-before-he-spurned-the-wolves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2060390","title":{"rendered":"How Anthony Edwards playfully jabbed LeBron James before he spurned the Wolves"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

If you\u2019re thinking Anthony Edwards is crestfallen by LeBron James\u2019 decision to join the Philadelphia 76ers over the Minnesota Timberwolves, think again.<\/p>\n

As I\u00a0reported\u00a0after news of James\u2019 choice broke Friday<\/a>, Edwards had a retort to the possibility of his team being spurned by James.<\/p>\n

During one of several conversations he had with James, Edwards playfully told him if he didn\u2019t make a decision soon, he would tear off James\u2019 head, according to league sources briefed on the conversation. James laughed and asked Edwards what would happen if he chose another team.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Edwards didn\u2019t hesitate, telling him that would be OK, because that just meant he could tear off James\u2019s head on the court when their two teams met.\u00a0The exchange was rooted in the affinity and respect that the two share for one another. They won gold together at the Paris Olympics. Edwards has said that he views James as a blueprint for him to follow<\/a> when it comes to taking care of his body. And James has said on his podcast that he views Edwards as the kind of player that will be able to draw free agents to Minnesota just to play with him.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
After losing out on LeBron, Timberwolves chart path forward.<\/div>\n
Jon Krawczynski<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
{“@context”:”https:\/\/schema.org”,”@type”:”VideoObject”,”@id”:”https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/video\/s1TDTSeZcGW7hsp\/”,”url”:”https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/video\/s1TDTSeZcGW7hsp\/”,”name”:”After losing out on LeBron, Timberwolves chart path forward.”,”description”:”After weeks of speculation, LeBron James has announced he will be signing with the Philadelphia 76ers, leaving the Minnesota Timberwolves to fill in the power forward holes.”,”uploadDate”:”2026-07-24T18:05:59.440Z”,”duration”:”PT1M16S”,”thumbnailUrl”:”https:\/\/cdn-media.theathletic.com\/video-stream\/auto-thumbnail\/s1TDTSeZcGW7hsp\/mHaQIZMS6aP3.0000000.jpg”,”contentUrl”:”https:\/\/video.nyt.com\/athletic\/streams\/s1TDTSeZcGW7hsp\/mHaQIZMS6aP3\/mHaQIZMS6aP3.m3u8″,”transcript”:”Minnesota Timberwolves did everything they could to convince LeBron James to come and team up with Anthony Edwards and LaMelo Ball and try and chase a 5th championship in a city that has never won one. Lamelo Ball and Anthony Edwards put in calls to LeBron James. Alex Rodriguez was quietly working behind the scenes to try and make the Timberwolves look really attractive to LeBron, and Tim Connolly used his long-standing relationship with Rich Paul to really put every effort that they could out there to get on LeBron’s radar. It looks and sounds like LeBron gave the Timberwolves full consideration, but in the end he chose Philadelphia, and now the Wolves have to move forward with a pretty big hole at power forward. They believe that Terrence Shannon Jr. Jalen Clark, and Trey Isles can be a good enough solution right now to give them a variety of options depending on the matchups, but I think they will still look at other options both this summer but also into the season via trade if they feel like they need a little more size and a little more rebounding at that spot. In the end, the Timberwolves did everything they could to try and get LeBron. It was a fun run at him, but he’s going to Philadelphia and the Timberwolves are moving forward.”,”ineligibleRegion”:[“BI”,”BY”,”CD”,”CF”,”CU”,”IQ”,”IR”,”KP”,”LB”,”LY”,”ML”,”NI”,”RU”,”SD”,”SO”,”SS”,”SY”,”UA”,”VE”,”YE”,”ZW”],”publisher”:{“@type”:”NewsMediaOrganization”,”@id”:”https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/#publisher”,”name”:”The Athletic”,”url”:”https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/”,”foundingDate”:”2016-01-25″,”logo”:{“@type”:”ImageObject”,”@id”:”https:\/\/theathletic.com\/app\/themes\/athletic\/assets\/img\/the-athletic-wordmark-black.png”,”url”:”https:\/\/theathletic.com\/app\/themes\/athletic\/assets\/img\/the-athletic-wordmark-black.png”,”contentUrl”:”https:\/\/theathletic.com\/app\/themes\/athletic\/assets\/img\/the-athletic-wordmark-black.png”,”creditText”:”The Athletic”,”height”:”60″,”width”:”435″},”publishingPrinciples”:”https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/edit-guidelines\/”,”sameAs”:”https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Athletic”},”author”:[{“@type”:”Person”,”name”:”Jon Krawczynski”}]}<\/p>\n
\n
\n