Below the new, 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 at all times 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 perfect,” he says, “so I can sacrifice that for certain.”
Forward of his freshman 12 months, 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 season going into his junior 12 months. “I left these final two periods 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 shortly garnered traction on the grassroots stage. Chase-down blocks and help-side pins off the backboard have been a relentless 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 12 months, he exploded with the sheer power 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 everyone 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 children behind me.”
In his first 12 months enjoying 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, changing into Baylor’s highest-ranked commit in over a decade.
Edgecombe has cemented himself as one of the vital 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’ve got 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 other than everybody else. I’m not attempting to be the identical, I’m attempting to be totally different.”
Portraits by Erick Sasso.