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The Cruyff Court basketball rims stood 10 minutes away from Jesse Edwards’ house, five minutes if he and his two brothers biked, so that’s where they went. It was the first time in years they had the opportunity to go, with scattered summer workouts and practices no longer an obstacle. Kai had just finished his senior season at Northern Colorado before flying home to Amsterdam. Rens’ playing career had been derailed by injuries and a late start, but his job as a trading manager kept him close to home. And Edwards had just finished his freshman season at Syracuse.

It was summer 2020, and the three were back at the court where they all tried out basketball for the first time six years prior. They were teenagers then, with Rens the oldest at 16 and the only one signed up for lessons at the local basketball club — that made him the de facto coach. There weren’t many courts to choose from either, since basketball wasn’t widespread in Amsterdam. So at the court named after the famous Dutch soccer player, whose No. 14 Edwards wears now at Syracuse, Rens taught his younger brothers the concept of a pick and roll, the precise way they needed to hold the ball when shooting, and the even more precise wrist flick to create the necessary backspin.

Last summer, though, it was Kai leading. He ran Edwards through the different post moves he’d learned at NCU, the shooting drills that required 10 makes from each of the five spots on the court. He noticed how Edwards’ 6-foot-11 frame still contained guard-like instincts, reflecting the type of player he was while learning the game — before growing eight inches and leaping to IMG Academy and SU.

Edwards’ late start, combined with his rapid growth spurt in high school, created two transition periods: one for learning the game for the first time, and another for relearning it after he grew. The second one is still ongoing at Syracuse. It’s the reason conversations that summer between Edwards, his parents and head coach Jim Boeheim revolved around a potential redshirt year. An extra year of development would key Edwards’ progress, bridging the gap until Bourama Sidibe graduates and the Orange’s starting center spot opens up.

But then COVID-19 gave every collegiate player a free year, and Sidibe’s injury in the first game created a gaping hole at center. The only problem, Boeheim said repeatedly throughout the season, is that Syracuse didn’t have anyone ready to fill it. For the last month, though, Edwards has taken the largest steps toward that point — serving as one of Syracuse’s top options off the bench, including 16 minutes and five rebounds in the Orange’s win over San Diego State in the NCAA Tournament’s first round.

“He felt like he was doing good in practice and stuff,” Kai said. “And then to just hear you’re not ready, especially when there’s no real other option, that one’s kinda hard for him, just because he felt like he was ready.”

For most of Edwards’ upbringing, David never expected, or wanted, his sons to become basketball players. He envisioned tennis players: their height, the wingspan, the power that could — if fine-tuned properly — resemble something similar to some professionals’ skillsets. Edwards competed in multi-event track and field competitions, earning spots on the podium for skills like sprints, long jump and high jump — what David said paved the skillset for his son’s dunking and shot-blocking ability, even if basketball wasn’t on their radar at that point.

Sarah Jimenez Miles | Design Editor

But then the Edwards’ Florida family vacation in the summer of 2010 overlapped with the night LeBron James signed with the Miami Heat. Posters of James and Dwyane Wade hung outside buildings and on the streets of Miami, and television cameras recorded a city rejoicing over a sport with such little exposure from where Edwards and his family lived.

On that same trip, they looked at IMG Academy as a tennis school for Kai, and potentially Edwards. When they returned home, though, Edwards and his two brothers started to learn the basics of basketball, inspired by the celebrations they witnessed in Miami. They went to Perry Sport and bought basic pairs of Nike sneakers. They bought nets for the public rims and tied them on.

As the youngest, Edwards struggled to beat his brothers. He hadn’t signed up for competitive basketball yet, and was smaller and weaker than Kai and Rens. Finding different ways to outsmart them and score became essential.

That came easy to Edwards because of his outside-the-box thinking, Kai said. He was the one who took a dart with each hand and stuck them into an outlet at age 11 — curious about what would happen and finding out it meant an electric shock and trip to the hospital. The one who mixed too many chemical solutions and caused steam to pour out of his high school classroom. The one who taught himself piano after he got bored with learning musical theory in lessons, who picked up chess and still plays David online, who, when going to the grocery store, was almost guaranteed to go exploring and disappear.

So Edwards found ways to become the better ballhandler and mid-range shooter.

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What else you should know before Syracuse takes on Houston:

• Joe Girard’s postseason improvements fly under radar in Syracuse backcourt
  
• The NBA buzz around Buddy Boeheim’s superstar March
  
• No. 11 Syracuse defied odds again. So how far can the Orange go?
  
• Beat writer Q&A: Houston Chronicle’s Joseph Duarte previews SU-Houston
  
• Jesse Edwards still isn’t ready to become SU’s starting center, but he’s almost there
  
• Beat writers disagree about whether SU will beat Houston
  

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“When you’re smaller you just have to find different ways to score, he couldn’t just rely on his physicality,” Kai said. “With him being tall now and still having some of those skills, that definitely helps him.”

That prompted the move to Florida and IMG — for basketball, not tennis — to capitalize on his raw potential and turn it into a college offer. BC Apollo, the club in Amsterdam the brothers played at, provided the first step, and a postgraduate year was then next. A visa problem delayed Edwards’ arrival at IMG until the spring, but within a month, Syracuse, Georgia Tech and Vanderbilt, among others, had all gauged interest. It was the first time he started lifting weights seriously, the first time he was able to experience and adjust to a faster tempo.

Jesse Edwards dunks for Syracuse as one of its up-and-coming centers. Courtesy of Dennis Nett | Syracuse.com

Some issues he had when he first started, like defensive positioning and decision-making when defending shooters and drivers, have still carried over to Syracuse and remain unsolved. Others, like conditioning, have improved by working with assistant coach Allen Griffin, cramming drills into 30- or 40-minute intervals to simulate a game.

“It’s been a real challenge,” Edwards said. “I feel like it’s never anybody (who) has a checkmark (of approval). “It’s every practice, every game, you gotta keep proving yourself over and over again.”

For most of Syracuse’s season, Edwards struggled to do that. Minutes on the court seemed to be undone when they were followed by a quick exit to the bench. Twenty-three minutes against Miami turned into five combined over the next three games. Boeheim compared his backups, including Edwards, to the freshman starting quarterback that everyone wants to see, only to find out when he does play that he’s nowhere near ready like the coach said all along. He praised Edwards for his potential, but then chided him for mistakes in the same sentence. 

Against Georgia Tech, though, Edwards set career-highs in minutes and points when Marek Dolezaj ran into foul trouble. He found pockets of space for three dunks, altered shots, and nearly helped the Orange pull off a second-half comeback. Then, he followed that up with 24 minutes the next game against North Carolina — where a Tar Heel forward said postgame that Edwards was SU’s most difficult player to rebound against.

Jesse Edwards used to run track and field when he was younger. Courtesy of David Edwards

“With his build and him growing into his body, he is kinda a project in the sense that it probably takes him a little bit longer,” Kai said.

That’s why Edwards worked out with his brothers in a quasi-weight room they set up in the garden over the summer, why practices with the Dutch national team helped that extra strength transfer over to the court, why he wasn’t extremely discouraged when he didn’t become SU’s starting center after Sidibe’s injury.

Former SU forwards Etan Thomas and Roosevelt Bouie both reached out during the season to offer words of encouragement — “your time will come, just be ready,” recalled Edwards’ mother, Simone. Edwards still isn’t ready, and that’s expected. But he’s as close as he’s ever been.

Published on March 24, 2021 at 11:55 pm

Contact Andrew: arcrane@syr.edu | @CraneAndrew