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 needed 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 exterior of the islands got here to know his identify. 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 assist his household.
The transition was clean, 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 most effective,” 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 courtroom to play protection, go to the rim and make performs,” V.J. says of the summer season going into his junior yr. “I left these final two periods with no affords. I used to be simply hooping. I used to be simply having enjoyable, that’s all that mattered to me.”
Regardless of not with the ability to demolish defenses with a barrage of pull-up jumpers and spot-up threes, Edgecombe’s dominance rapidly garnered traction on the grassroots stage. 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, realizing I’ve bought to feed my household and all of that. That’s undoubtedly helped me and the person who I’m proper now. Simply work tougher than everyone 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 prime 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 affords began flooding in. In mid-January, Edgecombe introduced his collegiate choice, changing into Baylor’s highest-ranked commit in over a decade.
Edgecombe has cemented himself as some of the 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 sport, 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 sincere,” V.J. says of his protection. “You will have a bunch of prolific scorers within the nation. I’m gonna be sincere—everybody can rating. I simply have to do one thing that’s going to set me aside from everybody else. I’m not making an attempt to be the identical, I’m making an attempt to be totally different.”
Portraits by Erick Sasso.
