Anthony Edwards Claiming He Would Dunk On Yao Ming While On His China Tour Is Yet Another Reason Why He's Already An All Time Great At Talking Shit

Jesse D. Garrabrant. Getty Images.

If there's one thing we could always use more of in the NBA, it's talking shit. In today's NBA, that feels like a bit of a lost art. Gone are the days of Larry Bird, Gary Payton, MJ, Kevin Garnett etc, which is kind of sad. Whenever we do get an instance of a current player talking shit, it usually leads to think pieces, or all this complaining about being a "frontrunner" blah blah blah. It's all very soft if you ask me. Remember all the crying we heard when Tyrese Haliburton pulled this out?

Talking shit is part of basketball. If you don't like it, stop the player from backing it up. I've always felt that was a pretty simple concept, but for whatever reason, the amount of true shit talkers we have in the league at the moment is something you could probably count on one hand.

In my opinion, if we were to rank the current shit talkers, someone like Anthony Edwards is most likely near the top of the list if not at the very top. You could argue no player in the NBA has as much irrational confidence as Ant, he's never shy about talking shit under any circumstance, and often times he then goes out and backs it up. That's a key element in the shit talking game for me. You have to be able to live up to it once you step in between those lines, and for as much as Ant talks, he's also capable of going out there and busting your ass and then letting you know about it. In my opinion, it's what makes him so fun to watch. You aren't just getting elite level talent, you're also going to have to deal with elite level shit talking.

So when I saw his photo/caption with Yao while he was out doing his Adidas China Tour, it was maybe the least surprising thing of all time

Now this is something I would pay a decent chunk of change to actually see. If we had the ability to go back in time or do some sort of space/time continuum situation where we could put Prime Yao on a court with Anthony Edwards, that would be must-watch stuff trying to see Ant climb and conquer Yao Mountain. If anyone from today's era can do it, it's probably Ant

It's honestly hard to pick a favorite Ant poster, but in order to pull something like this off, you need a guy who can elevate to levels not really seen in other humans, and someone who then can finish with force at the top of the dunk, which Ant does. 

You're telling me Ant couldn't pull off a similar Kobe/Yao poster?

Even if that was more "around" Yao than "through" Yao, you get the idea. There was also that time Andre Iguodala caught Yao on a lob, which was rather impressive back when he was on the Sixers and had young legs.

So I have little doubt that if you gave Ant a runway to the rim, not only would he absolutely go for blood, he'd most likely finish it too. It's hard to find many in-game dunkers better than Ant in today's NBA, so while the list of NBA players to catch Yao isn't exactly long, you're crazy if you don't think Anthony Edwards wouldn't add his name to that list. 95% of the battle is being fearless, and that's exactly how I would describe Ant as a dunker.

Also as a quick side note, I do think Yao is somewhat historically underrated because of how short his career ended up being due to all his injuries. I know now that we have basketball aliens like Wemby in 2025 a massive center like Yao doesn't seem all that crazy, but believe me when I tell you it was very much the opposite in the early 2000s. It's unfortunate that Yao started off playing 82, 82, and 80 games to start his career only to then get crushed with injuries as he entered his NBA prime years (25-28). By 30, he was out of the league. A HOFer with 8x All Stars and 5x All NBAs, I would have loved to see Yao in 2025 because of the improved spacing. Even if he never developed a 3pt shot, imagine him being the starting center for this current Rockets team? That would be incredible.