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 outdoors 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 help his household.
The transition was clean, Edgecombe says, however the actuality of spending your teenage years in a wholly new nation hasn’t been with out its challenges. “I do know it’s all for the perfect,” he says, “so I can sacrifice that for positive.”
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 taking part in 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 season going into his junior yr. “I left these final two classes with no gives. 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 had been a continuing prevalence, alongside emphatic tomahawk dunks.
Imbued with classes of willpower 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 power of a supernova.
“I got here to America to play basketball, realizing I’ve received to feed my household and all of that. That’s positively helped me and the individual that I’m proper now. Simply work tougher than all people else,” Edgecombe says. “I don’t wish to be in that [percentage] that don’t make it out. I wish to be within the half that makes it out and units the usual excessive and units a path for all of the youthful youngsters behind me.”
In his first yr taking part in in opposition to 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 12 months honors whereas additionally securing the League’s Participant of the 12 months and scoring titles by pouring in 17.3 ppg. The gives began flooding in. In mid-January, Edgecombe introduced his collegiate determination, turning into Baylor’s highest-ranked commit in over a decade.
Edgecombe has cemented himself as one of the crucial 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 following chapter of his journey.
“I really feel prefer it’s going to separate me, to be trustworthy,” V.J. says of his protection. “You may have a bunch of prolific scorers within the nation. I’m gonna be trustworthy—everybody can rating. I simply must do one thing that’s going to set me other than everybody else. I’m not attempting to be the identical, I’m attempting to be totally different.”
Portraits by Erick Sasso.
