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Wolves are some of the smartest animals in the wild. When packs move, the herd is often led by older, wiser wolves that set the pace. Strong young males walk behind them. You’ll find the females and children in the next wave. There are generally more strong males, usually the leaders, toward the back to ensure that everyone up ahead is protected.
Anthony Edwards’ pack of protectors moves with similar intentions. It’s not that the chiseled Minnesota Timberwolves star can’t hold his own—ask anyone who’s been immortalized on a SLAM poster by No. 5 over his first five years in the League—but the reality is that he’s a 24-year-old man with crazy basketball talent, charisma through the Target Center roof and a $244 million contract. The vultures are circling him. That’s why Edwards has an equally hungry group of predators around to keep him guarded at all times.
One protector who’s always been there to help weed out the snakes is Justin Holland. And that’s been the case since Ant was a 14-year-old fooling around at a South Atlanta rec center where Holland was a trainer. The two got to know each other over football drills. But when Edwards’ mother and grandmother passed away from cancer, their bond grew tighter and the workouts moved from the football field over to the basketball court.
A superstar on the high school level, college was a given for Edwards. In a perfect world, he would have made the decision about the next level with his mom and granny by his side. But in Edwards’ reality, people like Holland, his older brother Bubba, his school friend Nick Maddox and former football coach “Uncle” Drew Banks were the voices of reason.
While Duke and Kentucky were whispering sweet nothings about blue bloods and building dynasties, Ant was thinking about home and being near the people he had left, which made the University of Georgia the ideal landing spot.
“I think everybody knew that he was already a pro,” says Holland of Edwards’ No. 1 prospect ranking back in 2019. “It was just [a question of] what development could be like in that one year at Georgia. I thought UGA—the school, the atmosphere and the coaching staff—was the perfect opportunity to give him that added year to mature for his game to develop the way we needed.”
To help cultivate that growth, Holland and his family literally moved up to Athens to be near Edwards.
“We were there for added support,” says Holland. “It gave him a sense of home that he hadn’t had. We actually just went back to Georgia a couple of weekends ago for the Alabama [football] game. It was a dope experience. Felt like a homecoming.”
Speaking of home, when it came time to do drills in front of NBA scouts, Edwards had his pick of swanky courts and private gyms around ATL. But in typical Ant Man style, he had reps from the teams with the three top picks—Minnesota, Golden State and Charlotte—come see him shoot at the humble Tracey Wyatt Rec Center on South Atlanta’s Godby Road. None of it was an act; that was just Ant being Ant.
The Timberwolves, not at all discouraged, made Edwards the top pick of the 2020 NBA Draft. He came into the League with the ferocity of a famished canine, too. He barked at vets. He chewed up fellow rookies. He averaged 19.3 points a night while finishing runner-up in the Rookie of the Year voting.
“He was truly just prepared,” says Holland. “I don’t feel like a lot of guys actually come in prepared. We always trained and worked like pros. Also, he was playing for a bigger purpose. He was playing for his mom and grandma that he lost. He was playing with the burden of wanting to be the guy to take care of his family and take care of the generations after him. He was playing for a bigger purpose.”
Edwards’ next few seasons saw the young man get more comfortable on the court. His points, rebounds, assists and field-goal attempts all went up. He earned his first All-Star selection during the 2022-23 campaign. The kid’s first step was vicious. The way he two-stepped through the lane was beautiful. How he took threes from the top of the key with such poise was scary.
Some people took that confidence for cockiness. Some still do. But coming from where Ant comes from and enduring all that he has, it’s essential to have some measure of self-belief. Otherwise, the world would have devoured him years ago.
But ask those who knew Edwards long before the League and they’ll tell you that the man’s heart is his strongest weapon.
“He was just a happy, happy guy around the campus,” says Sam Walker, director of athletics at Holy Spirit Preparatory School. Edwards led the basketball team to the Class AAA Georgia state title in 2018 and a runner-up finish in ’19. “He had some close friends around. Obviously, one of the people that’s really close to him now, Nick Maddox, was here at that time. Those guys were always around the halls together. [Edwards] was just a good kid.”
“He’s impacted so many people,” Holland echoes Walker, “from parents in disenfranchised neighborhoods to AAU program kids, kids in this community and football programs. He’s doing so much. I always tell people, being from Atlanta, there are not as many people that have done as much as he’s done. And he’s only been in the League for five years.”
In those five years, the game has slowed up enough that it feels like he’s moving at a different speed than most other players on the court. With fellow All-Stars Julius Randle and Rudy Gobert by his side, Edwards’ Timberwolves are now an annual playoff threat. The home arena is filled with kids rocking No. 5 jerseys and Ant’s signature adidas. And the best news of all, Edwards has got his pack around him.
With Holland in particular, things have blossomed from a strong personal relationship to a successful business partnership. So, when it came time to align with companies like adidas and Sprite, Holland was right by Edwards’ side, ensuring the deals made sense.
“We look at companies [to pair with] that allow Anthony to truly be himself in all spaces,” says Holland. You know that adidas commercial where Edwards is in the car singing Fantasia’s “When I See U”? It feels so real because that’s his homie Nick behind the wheel. Holland adds, “When that is truly allowed—for him to be authentically himself—a fan resonates with that.”
Holland and Edwards hope those same fans (and a few new ones) are ready for the next phase in the business plan: going high fashion. “We actually have a Prada deal, which is the first formal marketing relationship with an athlete that Prada has worked with,” says Holland of the union that makes the 2024 Olympic Gold medalist an official ambassador for the luxury brand. “We’re just trendsetting and doing things that way. We follow our own path.”
Back on the hardwood, Ant is still forging ahead. Minnesota has made the Western Conference Finals the past two years, the team’s best showings since 2004. Though Edwards put up ravenous numbers in those two WCF series (averages of 23.8 ppg, 8.1 rpg and 6.2 apg), he and the Wolves were left panting on the court, getting eliminated in five games both years.
But the postseason isn’t just about endurance. “The teams that go deep in the Playoffs,” Edwards told reporters at Minnesota’s 2025 media day, “they’re together. They really care about each other…This year, we had [summer] camps. I had a camp. [Teammate] Naz [Reid] had a camp. A couple of guys had camps and nobody knew about the [others’] camps. I told Naz, Next time you have a camp, let me know. I’mma come. I think it starts in the summertime. It’s just things guys don’t know ’cause we’re not used to winning. I think winning starts with being together.”
On a personal level, Edwards insists his stamina will get better and his mid-range shot will be deadlier. If those two things develop alongside the relentless defense (he’s already third on the T-Wolves’ all-time steals list) and respectable shooting from deep (a career-high 39.5 percentage from outside last year) he’s already demonstrated, declarations of Edwards being the best US-born basketball player on the planet will only get louder.
To stay focused through the grueling 82-game season, Ant’s taking a new approach. “Going to try to get a career high in points,” Edwards said at media day. “I think that’s how I’m going to try to [stay focused all season]. I usually approach it like, Ah, I’m going to let my teammates get their shit off. Instead, I’m just going to go for a career high. I think that’s how I’m going to stay engaged.”
But even if he never has another 50-point night (he’s had two since 2024), places like Holy Spirit Prep will still be proud of all that the young man’s accomplished. “We’d love to retire his jersey,” says Walker. “We’ve reached out about it. We’re just trying to coordinate with his schedule. We’d like to do something big.”
Knowing Ant’s private team, it’ll get back to Holy Spirit with a date for the ceremony. Just as soon as they finish this call from Netflix and get off another Zoom with the folks at YouTube. Their guy, Anthony Edwards, is being hunted by everyone right now—and that’s a great thing. Holland and Co. are simply making sure the next move is the best move.
“He’s had to navigate a lot on his own intuition and his own instinct,” he says. “He’s had the discernment to say, I feel like these are the people that belong around me. But I think, if you look at our path and everything that we’re doing, not only on the court but off the court, you know we’re approaching things from a different lens.”
Different or not, Edwards is going to see to it that everyone in his pack eats.
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