Being dubbed the heir to His Airness is special. What makes it even more special, that Michael Jordan himself sends some praise. “That Brother is special. No question about it.” Stephen A. Smith recalled back in April how MJ praised Anthony Edwards. Even though the Wolves superstar wants no comparison, his explosive dunks and scoring stats always point towards comparison. But there is something that the 24-year-old will have to change in his game in order to escape from the Bulls legend’s shadow.

Let’s not forget, he is the leader of the Wolves team that made back-to-back Conference Finals. But his performance against OKC was visibly not his best. Ever so confident, Ant-Man averaged just 23 points in the 5 game series. During that series, he failed to score more than 20 points in 3 of those games. Another kicker is that he failed miserably from the 3-point line. During the regular season, the average was 39.5%. But in the Conf Finals, it dropped to a mere 28.2%. That’s not Jordan-like numbers.

Which is exactly what Austin Rivers pointed out in his podcast. “It’s like Minnesota was really good, man, until they went in against Thunder defensively like, Ant was looking around like brother, this is over, you know what I am saying? You can’t deal with that.” The Thunder were one of the best defensive teams in the league, and that’s why they won the championship. Their style of play had different players bring in the intensity to stop any opposing players. In the Conf finals, it happened to be Anthony Edwards, who lost another chance to be a NBA champion.

“When you play elite defenses, bro, that s— ain’t quirk bro. That s— worked in the ’90s, in early 2000s. One player could do something like that. Michael could take his team to the mountaintop. That s— ain’t gonna work on today’s day. You got teams eight or nine deep, six f—— all defensive players on one team, five, and they’re all just sitting there defending. Like, it ain’t gonna happen, bro.” Rivers feels that, in the previous era, a one player like Michael Jordan could score big and be the team‘s savior.

But there is context to it. During the decade 1990-2000, the highest scoring average per team in the league was 106.3, and the lowest was 97.5 points. Now add to this MJ’s 30 points per game average, which states that roughly 30 percent of the team’s scoring was done by one person. Now, the league scoring is significantly up. In the 5 seasons Edwards has been part of the league, the team has scored 113.08 points per game. With the team’s average being up, it becomes difficult for one person to carry the load, which Rivers alluded to.

That time when Michael Jordan came to Edwards’ rescue

When it comes to comparison, the Wolves star has always wanted to stay out of it. I don’t know why everybody’s comparing me to Michael Jordan,” said Edwards. “I wish it stops cause he’s done so much, and I’ve done so little.” In another interview, this time with Malika Andrews back in May, Ant-Man said he would rather create his own legacy. “The first Anthony Edwards, not the next Michael Jordan.” But when it came to learn from somebody, the 24-year-old only had the Bulls legend in mind.

The Timberwolves smoked the Grizzlies 141-125, and Ant went absolutely nuclear with 44 points. That night, his shooting was locked in, and it showed. Edwards had 13-of-19 shots, including 7-of-11 from beyond the arc. It was all possible due to Michael Jordan. And no, the Bulls legend did not help him train, at least not physically. “C Hines, my trainer, told me to black out tonight, so I tried to do that,” Edwards said on TNT. “He sent me MJ videos every day about blacking out… MJ said something like ‘why would I worry about a miss if I haven’t took the shot yet?’”

With a back-to-back Conference Finals exit and a chip on his shoulder to prove himself, Ant-Man will be back with a vengeance. Now, he will have to channel his inner MJ to help his team through. But can other players step up? That’s the question that the team and the coach will look to address in order to win the chip.