Beneath the recent, unyielding solar of Bimini, 8-year-old V.J. Edgecombe grew his love for the sport. Sitting inside our studio at SLAM HQ, the nations’ No. 4-ranked participant reminisces on these pick-up video games within the yard with a smile that’s shining simply as a lot as his diamond earrings.
“I used to be simply on the market having enjoyable, I didn’t actually care about expertise. We simply wished to play to have enjoyable,” Edgecombe says.
However expertise is one thing the now-18-year-old has all the time possessed. It was only a matter of time earlier than these outdoors of the islands got here to know his title. After going toe to toe with juniors and seniors as a 13-year-old at Buddy Hield’s basketball camp within the Bahamas, V.J. determined to capitalize on his powers and potential by heading to the States to chase his twin dream: make the NBA and help his household.
The transition was easy, Edgecombe says, however the actuality of spending your teenage years in a completely new nation hasn’t been with out its challenges. “I do know it’s all for the very best,” he says, “so I can sacrifice that for certain.”
Forward of his freshman yr, V.J. headed to Florida, the place he was initially unable to hoop because of the pandemic. His sophomore marketing campaign was spent on the native AAU circuit with the South Florida Kings earlier than he caught the eye of the Southeast Elite squad within the adidas 3SSB circuit.
“I used to be enjoying with a sprained wrist so I couldn’t shoot or something. [I was] simply on the court docket to play protection, go to the rim and make performs,” V.J. says of the summer time going into his junior yr. “I left these final two periods with no presents. I used to be simply hooping. I used to be simply having enjoyable, that’s all that mattered to me.”
Regardless of not having the ability to demolish defenses with a barrage of pull-up jumpers and spot-up threes, Edgecombe’s dominance shortly garnered traction on the grassroots degree. Chase-down blocks and help-side pins off the backboard have been a relentless incidence, alongside emphatic tomahawk dunks.
Imbued with classes of dedication grit and from his childhood within the Bahamas, V.J. introduced an unrelenting starvation to Lengthy Island (NY) Lutheran the next season. In his junior yr, he exploded with the sheer drive of a supernova.
“I got here to America to play basketball, understanding I’ve acquired to feed my household and all of that. That’s undoubtedly helped me and the individual that I’m proper now. Simply work tougher than all people else,” Edgecombe says. “I don’t need to be in that [percentage] that don’t make it out. I need to be within the half that makes it out and units the usual excessive and units a path for all of the youthful children behind me.”
In his first yr enjoying towards the nation’s high prospects within the Nationwide Interscholastic Basketball Convention (NIBC), a brand new league for elite prep groups, Edgecombe earned Gatorade New York State Participant of the Yr honors whereas additionally securing the League’s Participant of the Yr and scoring titles by pouring in 17.3 ppg. The presents began flooding in. In mid-January, Edgecombe introduced his collegiate resolution, turning into Baylor’s highest-ranked commit in over a decade.
Edgecombe has cemented himself as probably the most bodily imposing gamers in his class. The athleticism is simply unfair. And that J is smoother than the threads of his LuHi uniform. Belief that we’ve put you on recreation, as a result of the Bimini native is holistically locked in to the subsequent chapter of his journey.
“I really feel prefer it’s going to separate me, to be trustworthy,” V.J. says of his protection. “You’ve gotten a bunch of prolific scorers within the nation. I’m gonna be trustworthy—everybody can rating. I simply have to do one thing that’s going to set me aside from everybody else. I’m not attempting to be the identical, I’m attempting to be totally different.”
Portraits by Erick Sasso.
