"Don’t know if Ant could play football" - Paolo Banchero throws shade at Anthony Edwards' NFL aspirations
Over the past year, Anthony Edwards has opened up on his desire to play football on numerous occasions. Following his latest remarks on the topic, a fellow former No. 1 pick threw some shade at him.
Aside from Edwards, one of the other emerging stars in the league is Paolo Banchero. The Orlando Magic forward is heading into this third season and is fresh off of an All-Star selection and leading his team to the postseason.
Similar to Anthony Edwards, Banchero also played football when he was young before fully committing to basketball. However, he has no desire to become a dual-sport athlete at the pro level. When talking about Edwards' desires with Andscape, Banchero stated he thinks the Timberwolves star would quickly rethink the decision:
"I don’t know if Ant could play football. Ant probably thinks he could play football, but I don’t know," Banchero said. "Ant would take one hit in the NFL, one real hit, and I think he would be rethinking that decision pretty quickly. I wouldn’t go try... in the NFL."
Standing at 6-foot-10 and 250 pounds, Banchero has a much larger frame than Edwards. His blunt take on playing football professionally is a testament to the vote of confidence Edwards has in himself.
Anthony Edwards has firm stipulation regarding his NFL aspirations
While Anthony Edwards isn't shy about his dreams of playing in the NFL, his main focus is still on being one of the top stars in the NBA. Earlier this month, he stated the firm stipulation he has for himself regarding his football dreams.
After months of it being teased, Edwards and Justin Jefferson's iconic recreation of the Kevin Garnett/Randy Moss photo graced the cover of ESPN magazine. In preparation for this release, Edwards dove further into becoming the latest two-sport pro athlete.
Anthony Edwards has no plans on playing football until he wins at the highest level in the NBA. However, if he can achieve this goal in the near future, he'll consider taking his talents to the football field:
"I told my buddies," Edwards said. "If I win a ring in the next 3-4 years, I'm going to play football."
In just his fifth season, Edwards came within an arm's reach of achieving this dream. The Minnesota Timberwolves made the conference finals for the first time in two decades but were eliminated by the Dallas Mavericks.
Heading into the 2024-25 campaign, Minnesota is expected to remain competitive in the Western conference. Even after swapping out Karl-Anthony Towns for Julius Randle, Edwards and the Timberwolves have the talent to pull off a deep playoff run.