After a growth spurt, Edwards is suddenly a complete basketball player and is on the scouts’ radar

On Boxing Day 2018, then eighteen-year-old Jesse Edwards stands at Schiphol with packed suitcases. Destination: United States. In the Netherlands, the basketball player from Amsterdam has completed his apprenticeship. It was at the famous IMG Academy in Florida, where a place was reserved for him, that he began his adventure in American basketball that winter. He has no doubts. “I was really ready”, he looks back on his departure from the Netherlands.

Just under five years later, after a year at the IMG Academy and four seasons of college basketball at Syracuse University, Edwards is on the threshold of the NBA, the best league in the world.

His way to America is unlikely. In the Netherlands, Edwards, who is 2.11 meters tall, is considered a big boy in a small sport. He met America’s first scout at the age of eighteen, in the hall of his Apollo basketball club. The fact that playing in the United States might be an option for him hasn’t really crossed his mind yet.

He was curious about the NBA as a kid. He watches LeBron James movies with his older brothers Kai and Rens. During a family trip to Florida in 2010, the basketball star suddenly becomes closer. Kai, now a professional basketball player in Spain, is allowed to visit coach Nick Bolletieri’s IMG Academy as a talented tennis player. The family is in Miami when James announces his move from Cleveland to the Miami Heat. “Then, of course, we had to take a look at the stadium,” says Edwards.

More fanatical than usual

The excitement surrounding the transfer is overwhelming. Kai and Rens are asked about James at the stadium on camera. When they return home to Amsterdam, the three Edwards descendants, dressed in Miami Heat shirts, are dribbling a little more fanatically than usual in their local square. Young Jesse, who swims, plays soccer, tennis and athletics, begins to focus more and more on basketball.

It takes him a long time to show up on the scouts’ radar. “At first he wasn’t the player it was, others were more advanced,” says Jard Schuit, a basketball coach Edwards has worked with since he was a teenager. The two have known each other since seventh grade at Amsterdam High School. Schuit was the school’s team coach, point guard Edwards.

With his training program, former professional Schuit offers talented basketball players the opportunity to work on their game outside of their clubs. Edwards is one of his first pupils. When he is in the Netherlands in the summer, he always trains with Schuit, with his contemporaries who, like him, have gone abroad.

The coach gets to know the vwo student as a curious, born basketball player who is rapidly making great progress. “He picks things up faster than average,” says Schuit. ‘Turn, footwork; he made it his own easily. A major growth spurt, which sidelined him for nearly a year, didn’t just change his body. “He came back with a different mentality,” says Schuit. “Much more serious.”

Friendly and social

His youth coach Wierd Goedee sees that reflected at Apollo. “Jesse is very friendly and social, and that’s how he first approached basketball,” explains the current head coach of the Amsterdam team. “After that growth spurt – he seemed to be gaining an inch every month – he got better, and therefore more competitive.”

Shortly before the finale of what would be his last season for Apollo, the 2017/2018 season, Edwards broke a bone in his hand. “But he insisted on playing,” says Goedee. The Amsterdammers win. Edwards then poses with the cup, the bandage still on his left hand.

During Edwards’ last year in the Netherlands, Schuit occasionally makes videos with highlights with which he tries to present the Amsterdammer online. Scouting interest increases when Brother Kai leaves for a well-known basketball academy in the Canary Islands, then goes on to play for the American University of Northern Colorado. Scouts, mainly Europeans, are curious about Amsterdam’s little, big brother.

America’s first concrete interest comes in the form of a scout from Drake University, which reports to Apollo. ‘Who are you?’ asks the man at the edge of the field, Edwards’ father, David. ‘So I’m here for your son’, it sounds after his response.

Renowned basketball school

Soon after, Edwards receives an email from Brewster Academy, a renowned basketball school in the US state of New Hampshire. If he wants to come and play in the United States. “This all happened in a week,” Edwards explains. “I thought I was going to play in Europe, maybe in Germany, but that changed everything.”

The basketball player from Watergraafsmeer eventually ended up at the IMG Academy, which he still knows from the tour with his family. He has more playing time. Edwards is enjoying his year in Florida, where the sun shines relentlessly and the facilities shine like the most expensive professional clubs. Scouts at major universities know where to find it. Edwards chooses Syracuse, New York. This will be his springboard to a professional life.

“Even when we had bigger talent at Apollo, I thought Jesse would have the best chance of making it to the NBA,” Goedee says. “His specific size and qualities, his blocks and his quick jumps make him easy to integrate.” Schuit also foresees a bright future for Edwards, whom he still analyzes matches with from time to time. “He can do a lot more than he has shown so far.”