VJ Edgecombe went from obscurity to endless possibility

It has been barely six weeks since the Sixers made VJ Edgecombe the third pick of the NBA draft. And to this point every glimpse of him has been more intriguing than the last. Every peek has offered another hint of his promise.

There was draft night, when he wore a suit coat lined with photos of those who steered him on his unlikely journey from Bimini to the Association. And when he assured reporters he was dialed in on the dirty work, an approach that figures to play well in Philadelphia.

“My mentality,” he said, “is not to let nobody score. I hate to see other people score.”

And … 

“I just love playing defense,” he said. “Why not be an elite defender, or try your hardest to be an elite defender?”

AND …

“I hate to lose,” he said. “I just love to win.” 

Then there was summer league, in which he was the best player on the court in the first of two games he played, and at the very least a resilient one in the second.

Finally, there was that day two weeks ago, when he composed a piece for The Players’ Tribune that was notable for its energy and forthrightness, for the way the words spilled out of him in an often-italicized torrent. He came off as gleeful, grateful and hopeful, all at the same time. And he made it clear that while every fiber of his being is focused on the challenges ahead, he also allows himself occasional backward glances.

Back to Bimini, the western-most district of the Bahamas. Its two main islands, North and South Bimini, sit roughly 50 miles east of Miami and cover just nine square miles. The place is so small, said Gilbert Rolle Jr., who coached Edgecombe at Gateway Christian Academy (on North Bimini), that getting from one town to the next is “like walking from the meat section to the seasoning section of Walmart.” 

Not quite 2,500 people call Bimini home, the large majority on the northern island. That doesn’t count the tourists who flock there for the sun and sand, many via cruise ship.

And it certainly doesn’t include many basketball recruiters.

While hardly a hoops hotbed, the Bahamas have produced their share of NBA players. Mychal Thompson (from Nassau) was the first overall pick in the 1978 draft and won a pair of championships as a key reserve on the Showtime Lakers during his 12-year career; he’s also the father of Klay Thompson. Current NBAers Buddy Hield (Freeport) and Deandre Ayton (Nassau) also hail from the island nation.

But Edgecombe stands to be the first from Bimini.

“I know that my path was different from everyone else,” he said on draft night, “so I had to work a little harder, especially being from the Bahamas. There ain’t no opportunities. There ain’t nobody watching you play. No coaches come into the Bahamas and say, ‘Let me go recruit this kid for D1.’ So I know that my work ethic had to be a lot different from everyone else’s.”

It delivered him from his small island to Long Island, with a stop-off in Florida in between. It delivered him to Baylor, and the upper rungs of the draft. And now there are those who believe all things are possible. Comparisons to Dwyane Wade and Victor Oladipo abound, and on draft night Sixers president Daryl Morey said Edgecombe is “a potential All-Star” before adding that he will be part of “one of the best backcourts in the league,” with Tyrese Maxey, Jared McCain and, potentially, Quentin Grimes.

“There’s no barriers, really, that I can see to him just being a tremendous NBA player,” John Buck, who coached Edgecombe for two years at Long Island Lutheran, said in a recent phone interview.

“Trust me,” Rolle said, also via phone, “he’s going to do well. He’s going to give 100 percent. He hates to lose. He has a high motor. That’s just him. Some people just have this ‘it’ about themselves – not flashy but get the job done.”

He has some flair – some – as he showed in his summer-league highlights, though we also saw a series of drives and mid-range jumpers, right out of the Chris Paul oeuvre. That was most evident during Edgecombe’s 28-point, 10-rebound, four-assist, two-block performance in a July 5 loss to Utah.

He was then idled by a thumb injury until a July 15 meeting with Washington, a game that offered some revelations of its own. Edgecombe missed all seven of his first-half shots but kept plugging, going 4-for-7 from the floor after the break and assembling a 15-point, six-rebound, four-assist, three-steal stat line. He added a block, and the Summer Sixers won.

Buck has often mentioned how Edgecombe is the perfect combination of elite athleticism and off-the-charts competitiveness, and there are few dissenters on that front. Golden State assistant Chris Demarco, head coach of the Bahamian national team during an Olympic Qualifying Tournament last summer, told USA Today at the time that “everything (Edgecombe) does contributes to winning – offensively, defensively, getting downhill and the way he talks (on the court). He stepped into our training camp right away, and he belonged.”

Playing with Hield, the former Sixer, as well as Ayton and current Sixer Eric Gordon (whose mother is of Bahamian descent), Edgecombe averaged 16.5 points, 5.5 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game for a team that fell one game short of the Paris Games.

At Baylor, it was more of the same. Edgecombe led all Big 12 freshmen in scoring at 15 points a night and set a Bears freshman record with 68 steals, while part of a club that fell to Duke in the second round of NCAAs.

And now he’s here, while always remembering where his story began. He mentioned to interviewers on draft night that his home (in Bailey Town, on North Bimini) had no electricity, leaving his family to rely on a generator. He extrapolates in the Players’ Tribune, writing that he grew up on “the rough side” of the island.

“We didn’t have everything we wanted,” he writes, “but we had everything we needed.”

Especially the love and guidance of his mom, Bendra. A track athlete in her younger days, she no doubt passed on some of her dexterity to VJ. And as a single parent, she was no joke. VJ writes in PT that he was on the receiving end of “a lotta whoopin’s” (sic), which appear to have had the desired effect.

“He was always a humble kid,” Rolle said. “His mom really did a great job in terms of making sure he did things the right way. He always had manners, respect. He always had to do his homework. He had to be on time.”

Another early influence, Edgecombe writes, was Grathen “Sugar” Robins, the head coach of Bimini Youth Basketball. VJ was under Robins’ tutelage after taking up the game at age 7 or 8, and Robins was the first one to mention the NBA as a possibility. Sadly, he died years before that dream was fulfilled, but Edgecombe honored him by having Sugar’s picture among those sewn into the lining of his draft-night coat.

Curiously, Edgecombe does not mention his time at Gateway Christian Academy in his PT piece, even though he spent “three or four years” there, by Rolle’s estimate, and in recent years has designated that some of his NIL money fund scholarships to the faith-based school.

Gateway, located in Bailey Town, was founded by Gilbert Rolle Sr. as a preschool in 2001, according to Gilbert Jr. It is now attended by 150 K-to-12 students – and, significantly, has had a gym since 2008. That was no doubt appealing to a kid like VJ, who grew up playing outside, shooting at a crate mounted on a pole. (He also mentions playing at a park called The Pond in the PT story.)

“That was his foundation,” Rolle said, “and you had to be tough, because the sun was hot, playing outside.”

Rolle, who besides coaching at Gateway serves as the school’s principal and senior pastor (having succeeded his dad in both roles), said Edgecombe would often compete against older guys, and that Gateway’s team likewise practiced against such players.

“You had to grow up quick,” Rolle said. “You had to play hard.”

By seventh grade, Edgecombe was playing with the varsity, which would travel to games elsewhere in the Bahamas as well as Florida. VJ writes in the Players’ Tribune that one of his treasured memories is beating a heavily favored team from Nassau in a tournament at Freeport.

It was also around this time that Edgecombe excelled at a camp sponsored by Hield. Then COVID hit and he headed to Florida, where according to the PT account he lived with his older brother Tario. Newsday reported that VJ was taking online courses while playing AAU ball for two years, but Edgecombe describes that time rather differently in the Players’ Tribune.

“I was just there in the house playing video games,” he writes. “I had no worries.”

In time he landed at Long Island Lutheran, a high-profile program that competes with other big-boy schools, like Oak Hill, IMG and Montverde. Edgecombe was the Gatorade New York Player of the Year both seasons he played at LuHi, and as a junior was the Gatorade National Player of the Year. He was also a McDonald’s All-American his final season. All the top college programs came calling, and he chose Baylor over Duke, Kentucky, Florida and St. John’s.

Now he hopes to make the most of the latest chapter in his tale.

“If you love the game, if you love something, you’re gonna put time into it,” he said on draft night. “And I just always want to give love to the game. And that’s by just working.”

Buck was there on draft night, in the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. So too were Rolle and Hield. Sugar, too, at least in spirit.

But to live part of it with a guy? That, Buck said, was “a little surreal.”

“You watch (the draft) on TV, and you see it, and you wonder about all those guys’ stories,” Buck said.

Rolle said much the same thing.

“Just to see him take off like that – you knew he had the potential,” he said. “He always had that tough mentality. Humble kid. Does things the right way. Honor student. Came from humble beginnings. It’s pretty amazing.”

And far from over. To date he has offered little hints of what might lie ahead, hints as tiny as the dot of an island from which he hails. The possibilities seem expansive, as wide and deep as the Atlantic Ocean itself. And certainly he’s poised to dive right in.