As the Warriors wade into the Western Conference semifinals against the Minnesota Timberwolves beginning Tuesday, they are in some ways responsible for their biggest challenge.
That would be Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards, whose rise to stardom traces back to a pre-NBA draft workout in 2020 under the observation of Golden State coach Steve Kerr, general manager Bob Myers and CEO Joe Lacob.
“Ant goes out to work out with his trainer,” Kerr recalled on Monday. “We’re the only five people in the whole gym. And after 15 minutes of just watching him lazily shoot 15-footers, I thought, you know, when’s the workout going to start? And it turned out that was a workout.”
Unimpressed, Kerr urged Edwards to bring more energy. More gusto. More sweat.
“I said, ‘Hey, can we see something more?’ ” Kerr said. “And I think he was kind of surprised, and so they picked it up. They picked up the pace a little bit. More than anything, it was just a reminder of how young Ant was. I don’t think he really knew what a hard workout was at that point.”
Edwards, 19 and the presumptive No. 1 overall pick from the University of Georgia, thought he was crushing it.
“I thought I was working hard,” Edwards told reporters in Minneapolis in the summer of 2023. “When [Kerr] came, I was going through drills and he kept stopping them, like, ‘That’s all you got? That’s all you got?’ And I’m like, ‘Bruh, I’m going hard as you want me to go. What you want me to do? I’m sweating crazy.’ ”
It was not enough for the Warriors, holding the No. 2 overall pick and one year removed from five consecutive appearances in the NBA Finals, winning three times. It was not enough for Kerr, who was a teammate of the maniacally driven Michael Jordan and had coached the likes of Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson.
It wasn’t until that night after the workout that Kerr, with some name-dropping, got Edwards’ full attention.
“He’s like, ‘Man, you’ve got to see Steph, KD and Klay work out,’ ” Edwards said. “They still was continuously telling me, ‘You didn’t work hard enough. If we had the No. 1 pick, we wouldn’t take you.’ And I was just like, ‘Damn, that’s crazy.’ ”
That conversation resonated with Edwards, even though Kerr did not know how much at at the time. He did, however, notice a change in the youngster’s approach.
“He was genuinely captivated by hearing stories about those guys, but I didn’t think anything of it,” Kerr said. “We went back and worked him out two weeks later, and the workout was way better. He really went hard and at that point, we were sure. We weren’t sure after the first one. Then, after the second one, we were sure. And you could see he was just exploding with talent and charisma.”
Yet it was that first meeting with the Warriors that left Edwards with a nugget that still drives his effort.
“Me and my trainer riding home after dinner and we’re just talking like we got to pick it up,” Edwards said. “I don’t know how, I don’t know what we got to do. But we got to pick it up. After that. I became a madman at the gym.”
Edwards has been selected to three NBA All-Star teams and, at age 22, led the Timberwolves to the 2024 Western Conference finals. He has become one of the new faces of the league.
To put a finer point on it, Golden State now must go through Edwards to eliminate the Timberwolves and reach the conference finals.
Listening to the right advice and making it a part of the daily routine, it seems, can take one to high places.
