{"id":483495,"date":"2026-02-16T10:37:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T10:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/483495\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T10:37:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T10:37:08","slug":"anthony-edwards-and-victor-wembanyama-speak-on-potentially-being-the-face-of-the-nba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/483495\/","title":{"rendered":"Anthony Edwards And Victor Wembanyama Speak On Potentially Being The Face Of The NBA"},"content":{"rendered":"

After an eventful weekend that ended with Anthony Edwards<\/a> winning the All-Star Game MVP<\/a> and Team USA stars winning the final game 47-21 to secure the win over Team USA stripes, the Timberwolves star sat down with NBA TV to give his honest opinion on potentially becoming the face of the league.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt isn\u2019t something I\u2019m out here shooting for; if it happens, it happens,\u201d Edwards said after the game. \u201cI\u2019m not somebody like \u2018oh I\u2019m trying to be the face of the league,\u2019 but if it happens, it happens,\u201d said<\/a> Edwards.<\/p>\n

The Timberwolves<\/a> star finished the new format of All-Star games averaging 10.7 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 1.0 assists while shooting 59.0% from the field and 40.0% from beyond the arc.<\/p>\n

Until recently, Edwards had a different answer. He spoke to the media just yesterday before the All-Star game and was asked if he saw himself replacing LeBron James<\/a>, who is near an imminent retirement, as the face of the league.<\/p>\n

\u201cMan, them folks got Wembanyama. They got Wembanyama, they\u2019ll be alright,\u201d joked<\/a> the Timberwolves star while pointing to his competitor in becoming the future face of the NBA, the 2023 No. 1 overall pick, Victor Wembanyama<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After Team World lost both games tonight, a disappointed Wembanyama also sat down with the media and gave his two cents on what he thinks about potentially becoming the face of the NBA one day.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I see that. I see what you\u2019re trying to make me say, too. It\u2019s something that\u2019s got to be natural, of course. Obviously, social media, NBA can promote whoever they want.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut at the end of the day, it\u2019s going to be the best players and who the people ask for. Being the face of the league, it\u2019s something that can be manufactured, but only to some extent.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s only going to be the best players. This is what it\u2019s all about. Sh**, being the face of the league is just the by-product of\u2026 and I\u2019m saying that like somebody being the face of the league would just be the by-product of their basketball level,\u201d concluded<\/a> Wembanyama.<\/p>\n

The Spurs\u2019 French star ended the night averaging 16.5 points, 4.0 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks while shooting 76.9% from the field and 80.0% from beyond the three-point arc.<\/p>\n

I agree with Wembanyama to the extent that the playing level organically determines the face of the NBA and not that it is some debate in which one can argue their way to the right answer.<\/p>\n

Most of the debate around the next face of the league is triggered due to the nearing and imminent retirement of LeBron James. But to this day, people still argue whether he is or Stephen Curry<\/a> is the face of the league. But it is organically understood that they both represent different things at the highest level in the league.<\/p>\n

Similarly, as much as Edwards or Wembanyama can debate on who becomes the next face of the league, their actions on the court end up speaking a lot more than their words.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After an eventful weekend that ended with Anthony Edwards winning the All-Star Game MVP and Team USA stars…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483496,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-483495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}