Canadian Zach Edey and his undisclosed truth: "He is a generational player" 

11/19/2024 10:00 AM

Standing at 7-food-1 at 15 years old, Zach Edey was as towering as an invisible teen could be. He had gone absolutely unnoticed by the world of scouts. But, after all, that introverted kid who barely was starting to play basketball was out of reach of even the wittiest scouter. He was hooping somewhere close to the middle of nowhere, enjoying school and recreational basketball at Leaside High School, in East York, Toronto, one of these so many secluded and green areas in the city that one would never think about. 

"Even though he had just started playing, he already dominated the games because of his height," said Amit Latchmiah, Edey's high school physical education teacher and his first coach ever in basketball. 

"Teams doubled and even tripled team him," Latchmiah said. 

Not just in basketball, but also proving in it in other sports, Edey debunked the cliche of the uncoordinated and clumsy, lanky guy.

"He was also in my gym class, so I could see him in different sports. He was good at almost every sport, was coordinated, had a lot of endurance and stuff like that, he was pretty good playing other sports as well. He was good at baseball, hockey, badminton, football…" 

But it was a coincidence that he ended up in basketball. The sister of the director of the King Nations basketball academy from Toronto, Vidal Massiah, attended a game to watch her nephew, and Edey was also playing. She had to hit her brother up, as couldn't keep her eyes off of that lofty kid. Massiah picked up the phone. 

-Hey, there is a really tall kid and taller than you

-How tall? -, replied Massiah, who is 6-foot-7.

-7-foot-1  

-Oh, that's pretty good, let's dig more into it. 

The director of Kings Nation, which was Edey’s first rep team after high school, saw that intriguing kid. He had a kind of premonition. 

"I got blown away by his athleticism and his physical skillset. I was excited about his potential. It quickly became a vision. He worked hard, is a great kid, has a competitive spirit, all those things were there," said Massiah. 

"I knew I found a generational player." 

Only seven years later that vision is closer to becoming a reality. Zach Edey is in the NBA mostly starting for the Memphis Grizzlies in his first year in the best league in the world, and he is seen by the franchise as the big man of its present and future, the long-term partner for Ja Morant in the pick and roll. In a pick higher than initially expected, the Grizzlies selected Edey ninth in the 2024 NBA draft. It was barely the beginning of the long story the Canadian was supposed to write, but it was a full-circle moment for his first coach. 

"I recorded, it was a proud moment and surreal because I actually coached that kid. A kid in the top 10 in the NBA draft is surreal. I was his first coach and it's something that always I can tell the story about," Atchmiah said. 

He had already accomplished much before making it to the NBA, with two back-to-back NCAA Player of the Year honours in 2023 and 2024, a milestone achieved with the Purdue Boilermakers and not seen in college basketball since Ralph Sampson won three in a row with Virginia between 1981 and 1983. Plus, the intimidating center was part of the first Canadian men’s national team to clinch a medal in a FIBA World Cup with the bronze in 2023. 

But it turns out he was closer to hating basketball than loving it. As Brian Hamilton tells in his story in The Athletic, Zach Edey rejected proposals to play basketball until he was convinced to step onto the court as a way to get in shape for baseball, the sport in which he was trying to make it as a pitcher. 

Latchmiah remembers the reason that definitely led Edey to hoop. 

"He decided to go with basketball because he had a bunch of friends and one of them was really into basketball," he said. It didn’t take long from there. After kicking off in Leaside High School and his stint in the Kings National Basketball, the center moved to IMG Academy in Florida before taking the leap to the NCAA in 2020 at 18 years old. 

In his own way, the origins of Zach Edey are reminiscent of the story of Slam Dunk, the basketball cartoon, and the main character, Hanamichi Sakuragi. Like Sakuragi, the Canadian center started to play basketball at 15 years after being reluctant. Sakuragi's discoverer was Haruko, who told someone in a position of power that there was a raw dude with a lot of potential. Akagi would help Sakuragi to develop his game in the same way Vidal Massiah did with Edey after his sister discovered that young giant and told him about his skills. 

Even Sakuragi and Edey's first skills are essentially the same. Both possessed impressive physical virtues, but both of them had to put in a lot of work in areas such as handling and shooting given that they had never touched a basketball. However, as was Sakuragi's case, Edey had an outstanding ability to pick everything up that was taught at the speed of the light. 

After Latchmiah introduced Edey to the fundamentals such as footwork and how to catch the ball, not to make double dribbles, and more, Massiah kept polishing that diamond in the rough in his academy. 

"Hockey is more chaotic than basketball, but he was processing things at a high rate, he wasn't overwhelmed by the speed of the game. Those things to me very early jumped off the page. He hadn't played basketball but was going super fast. These things were indicators that we had a special talent," said Massiah, who had to consider everything for a guy who had barely played basketball at 16 years old in order not to fall behind. 

"The first thing we worked at was teaching him how to pass. He was new and was green, fresh, the others wanted to attack him. He had to know how to get the ball in his hands effectively, understand that if he had three people coming and moved the ball diagonally, it would hurt his team," the Kings Nation director said. 

The former Edey coach found in his pupil someone who also was a perfectionist, a devoted artisan to his craft. 

"He did everything with [the right] mindset, efficiency, and accuracy. Never wants to stop learning," 

Unlike Sakuragi, the Canadian prospect is not a troublemaker or a loud guy. Even though his partner in Memphis, Ja Morant, has piled on issues off the court — as was the case of the point guard Ryota Miyagi, the Sakuragi's best friend. 

"He is a quiet guy. When he speaks people listen because he doesn't speak often," Massiah said. 

"He just spoke when he had something to say. When he had a conversation it was always good, never awkward. So I think he has a great personality," he said. It appeared that most of what the silent Edey had to say he was going to express through basketball.

In one more similarity with the Japanese series, one of the backup point guards in the Grizzlies rotation is Japanese, Yuki Kawamura. Memphis has the particularity of featuring the tallest and the shortest player in the league with the Canadian and Kawamura. While Edey is the ceiling of the league, standing at 7-foot-4 alongside Victor Wembanyama, Kawamura has to look upwards to see everyone else’s face, standing at 5-foot-8. The point guard is part of the generation of Japanese basketball players who started playing basketball in part because they were inspired by the cartoons. 

An extraordinary mindset 

While Edey has always had an innate and unique skillset for basketball, an extraordinary mindset in many senses is what has allowed his hidden power to come to light. 

The unfazed Canadian has that capability of camouflaging his emotions with a poker face that he displays at all times throughout games. He is like an iceman who turns into fire close to the basket as he ignites in the paint in the heat of the traffic. 

However, as happened to Sakuragi in the beginning, at times for opponents it was easy to poke him and get him into foul trouble due to his inexperience. But that didn’t last.

"He was very mature at his age because being 7-feet tall at 15 years old, everyone has eyes on you. But he handled it pretty well. He just had fun all the time, joking around, an easy-going guy. He was level-headed and passionate because he is a competitor too," Atchmiah said. 

First Edey's basketball coach also noticed those early signs of intense love for basketball in a player. 

"He always took extra shots. You can tell he loved basketball," Atchmiah said. 

The Torontonian had a strong inner desire never to stop learning, and that showed as soon as he enrolled in Purdue and put himself in the hands of a big man artisan Brandon Brantley, one of the assistant coaches of Matt Painter. He poured skills into the Canadian by becoming Edey’s shadow, his other half, to mold him into the imposing giant he is today. 

Edey recreated those images of the gym lights coming out of the window to light up the night with Sakuragi training hard with Akagi inside.  

"The thing about him is that he is not an early-morning person. But after practicing, he stayed all day, he stayed in the gym all day," Brantley said. 

The coach chuckled while answering the question about what time Edey went home after putting in work overtime.

"He didn't have a time. He stayed to do everything. He wanted to get better, he wasn't in a rush. He didn't have a time until he finished," Brantley said. 

“He stayed in the gym all day. He didn't have a time until he finished” – Brandon Brantley

"What has developed Zach into what he is today is that he is a kid [who was] very motivated. He has an incredible work ethic. A lot of times, as a coach, we have a plan for kids to help them to become better. But it's hard because they don't love it at all and Zach loved it all, no matter what you asked him to do, he would do it at 110 per cent," he said. 

After eventually starting the sport, basketball was love at first sight for the two-time NCAA Player of the Year, and Brantley fell in love with his flawless and relentless attitude. 

"Everybody loves to play, but in order to get to the place you have to do the work that goes into it, you have to fall in love with all, weight training, speed work, staying after practice. This kid watched tons of film and I don't think young guys understand how important film work is. He lived in my office, he just wanted to get better." 

The making of an intimidating giant  

Vidal Massiah was clear about the four virtues that made Zach Edey a future NBA player: "Size, power, finesse, and IQ". 

However, finesse wasn't always present in Edey's passing, and Brantley made him well aware of it in a peculiar way at his arrival to Purdue in 2020. 

"He loves his routines, so any time something happens and throws him off his routine he will get mad. When he got first to Purdue I would tease him about his passing," the coach said. 

What he said after realizing the Canadian had limited passing abilities resounded in Edey's mind: 

“Hey man! You're not a good passer. You actually suck at the passing!”

The young center didn't take it well first.

"He got mad at me," Brantley said while erupting in laughter. 

But, instead of dismissing the criticism and taking it personal, the Canadian took it as a challenge to prove himself. 

"We would do a passing routine before we come out and warm up before the game and to the very last game in Purdue we still did that routine. And it's a great lesson because some guys when they get to a level they're like ‘I don't need to do that.’ And this guy is a two-time National Player of the Year and still wants to do basic passes with his coach. It was refreshing, that's my favourite Zach story," Brantley said. 

But passing wasn't the only problem to fix in someone who had only played basketball for three years. The high demands of college basketball displayed a number of weaknesses in Edey’s game. 

"He had a lot of turnovers, he wasn't really good, he would put the ball down on the floor,  which is a common mistake for bigs when they are young, not keeping the ball high. He was a terrible passer out of the post. He had to work definitely as far as being able to guard ball screens and change pace in transition. Those were some of the biggest things we always focus on all season," the Purdue assistant coach said. 

The biggest change for Edey came in the 2022-2023 season when he appeared to assimilate and deploy everything he had been working on with Brantley. The Torontonian went from playing 19 minutes per game in the 2021-2022 season to 31, jumping from 14.4 points and 7.7 rebounds to 22.3 points and 13 rebounds per game. Those numbers gave him his first NCAA Player of the Year award. 

However, what set the Canadian apart and made him powerful on the offensive end was that captivating sky hook with jaw-dropping accuracy. It has become his recognizable signature move and shot and the most eloquent manifestation of that finesse that stood out to Massiah. 

Hanamichi Sakuragi never developed such an eye-popping shot, but he practiced his jumper day in and day out, until he finally reached 10,000 reps — as Edey did with the sky hook. 

"He took so many hook shots. If you want to be a master in your field the magic number is 10,000. He easily took more than 10,000 hook shots, he is a master,"  Purdue assistant coach said. 

As he gained experience and grew in his college career, the Canadian center also let everybody know about these essential characters' intangibles in the repertoire of a star. 

"He is a fierce competitor and he did a great job not only being the best player in terms of production but also putting the team on his shoulders and protecting guys. He is an unbelievable teammate," Brantley said. 

"It was hard for him to be the best player in every game with all the pressure that comes with it, so he learned to deal with it. He was phenomenal and spectacular. He gave us an identity, setting an example specifically for young guys to watch because he wasn't the most vocal guy, but he was vocal when he needed to be. He still showed up working and gave the 110 per cent on the court." 

Edey led by example until the very last day, the NCAA final against UConn. Whatever the result was, he already had earned a place in college lore after making history with his second consecutive College Player of the Year nomination. But he showed details that reveal greatness, the ambitious spirit of a player who incessantly wants more and more. 

"I didn't think we had to do the passing routine as long, just a couple of times to show him and he was like ‘no coach, we gotta do this before every game’ and we did. Sometimes maybe before the game, I kind of lose track of my schedule and I wasn't out there. Even before the National Championship game sent somebody to me. ‘Hey coach, get out, he got to work on some passes,’ and we did our passing. It was incredible," Brantley said. 

In his last showcase in the NCAA, Zach Edey dropped 39 points in the final against UConn, never backing down despite playing defensive stud Donovan Clingan (and now promising Portland Trail Blazer rookie) in an eventual blowout win for the Huskies (75-60). 

Between the last two Edey seasons in college basketball, the center was part of Canada's roster that managed to clinch the first medal in a FIBA World Cup with the bronze against Team USA. Jordi Fernandez quickly noticed the offensive and defensive power in a player who adapts very well to the international game with the non-existence of the three-second rule.  

Edey's future in the NBA  

Zach Edey is a particular and thought-provoking outlandish phenomenon in today's NBA. For some, he is a blessed anomaly in the current league, a bit of nostalgia who evokes the old-school intimidating big men from the 90s given his size and dominant nature in the paint. In what might be a linking fate to the past, he wowed everybody on Nov. 4's game against the Nets with a sheet never seen in a rookie since the great Hakeem Olajuwon in 1984. 

The Canadian center had 25 points, 12 rebounds, and 5 blocks with an impressive 90 per cent from the field after making 11 out of 12 shots. In terms of overall numbers, the Toronto native is averaging 11.1 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 1.0 block in 20.1 minutes while going 61.0 per cent from the field. 

However, Edey prompts a lot of skepticism as others see him as part of an endangered breed of players who don't fit in today's NBA, an outlier bound to fail. Due to his lack of shooting entering the league, limited mobility, and poor passing abilities, he is supposed to be an outdated center who has arrived at the wrong time in a fast-paced league, a limited force compared to the modern big man who impacts much beyond the paint. 

Edey has struggled at times with fouling and against small ball units used by opponents. 

Nevertheless, two of the coaches who have most molded Edey's game trust the sustained evolution of the Canadian to continue despite his current weaknesses.  

"He can improve and keep developing because he has been only five years into this thing. You have no choice but to keep improving," said Massiah referring to the fact that Edey started to play basketball at 15 years old. 

"Fair enough, people have their doubts maybe. (But) it's hard to doubt seeing what he has accomplished at this point, being one of the most dominant college all-time players. If I'm a betting man I'm betting on Zach Edey," he said. 

While chuckling, Massiah also highlights how many naysayers the Canadian center has already proved wrong. 

"College basketball and pro basketball [are] at a different level, but it is high-level basketball and those coaches who said the same things coming off high school: different game, modern game…. they are eating their words," he said. 

Lack of shooting might be the major area of concern on the offensive end in an era when being a perimeter threat has become an indispensable requirement for big men to space the floor and keep pushing the pace. While Edey is far from being a consistent shooter, he appears to be on the right track to get there. He has splashed six out of 10 3-pointers attempted at the beginning of the season. He has already made more triples than he did all of last season with Purdue.

"He can definitely shoot. I'm not worried about that, it was one of his best skills in terms of technique," said Massiah, who refers to the relentless ambition to learn from his ex disciple. 

"He never wanted to stop learning. When he wasn't challenged, he got a little bit bored. He needed to get stimulated. You have to keep learning but in a progressive manner," the Kings Nation director said. 

Brantley also mentions this whatever-it-takes mindset of Edey to express his optimism about the Canadian and his future ability to hit from downtown. 

"The NBA is a totally different game, the space, the athletics. But he is going to be a very capable shooter, there is no doubt in my mind because he is going to work, he is going to put time in, and is going to be a space guy, a capable space guy in the NBA," said Purdue assistant coach, who remarked on how much dedicated Edey has been to it. 

“Shooting is one of his best skills in terms of technique” – Vidal Massiah

"He worked on it. You take these threes in an empty gym. If you do it in a real game the defender is not going to close out on you because they give it to you. Sometimes people think it's easy because nobody closes out, but in the shooter's mind that kind of plays in his confidence, because it's like "man, I'm not a big shooter and that's why they don't close out on me," Brantley said. 

"You see a guy like Stephen Curry, he is always going to have someone on him because everybody knows he is capable of. You have to get confidence to take (the shots) in the rhythm of a game. So he is going to figure all that out," he said. 

Edey has showcased in this first game his facility for lobs in the pick and roll, but to be more versatile in the different plays of the two-man game he still has to expand those passing abilities he spent so much time at under Brantley's supervision. 

"He will have to get better passing, especially in a lot of schemes they run in the NBA. The Joker is such a good passer and I think as a part of Zach's game he will need to improve, being able to make those reads off the elbow in DHO. He is going to work, has worked all his life and he is not going to stop, he will continue to work and improve," Brantley said.

A 7-foot-4 who might do everything in defence

Despite the concerns on shooting and passing, the defensive flaws inherent to his size appear to be the biggest obstacle that prevents Zach Edey from success in the NBA, which makes him a colossus with feet of clay. Standing 7-foot-4 and weighing 300 pounds, up to 65 more than fellow tallest-player-in-the-league Wembanyama, it seems to be cold outside the comfortable house that is the paint for the Torontonian center in this increasingly fast-paced NBA. For a lot of skeptics, the Canadian might be a defensive liability. 

The basket and its closest surroundings are and will keep being Edey's habit, but he offered a couple of very interesting glimpses of a possible all-around defender against the Brooklyn Nets. In one play he was able to beat in space the much quicker former Raptor guard Dennis Schröder by holding him back on the drive and ultimately blocking him. Later, he switched onto a much smaller opponent in the perimeter in a pick and roll, the 6-foot-5 Keon Johnson, keeping up with him and shutting him down in the end with a block. 

In college, Edey already displayed over time an awesome ability to recover on drives to eventually block the shot, which gives him more options to guard in two-man actions beyond drop coverage. He is so enormous that he can catch players from behind if they dare to shoot with him trailing.

Brantley is clear when he answers whether Edey can be a more switchable defender. 

"Yeah, he has really improved (the way) his body moves. People always question whether he would be able to keep up with the pace in the NBA, specifically in ball screens, he has a chip on his shoulder. In the back of his mind he wants to make an All-Defensive team, I promise. He wants to show he can do it," he said. 

Judging by Brantley’s words, the Canadian giant even can reach unimaginable heights for his doubters as a defender. 

"Absolutely, he will be able to switch onto small point guards. Whatever they need him to do, he is going to do it because, at the end of the day, he is a kid who just wants to win games," the coach said. 

Two revealing jokes

Edey is not the biggest joker or the most expressive person, but behind the scenes, he can unleash peals of laughter.

"Like most kids, he was quiet," Brantley said when reminding his first interactions with the Canadian center. 

"But once he got comfortable with me and came out of his shell I would laugh and joke with him a lot and we still laugh with each other. The favourite part of my relationship with that kid is that is not always basketball, I love laughing and he makes me laugh," he said. 

"He called me old man and he talked about me and what he would do to me if I was defending him in a basketball game. He liked to say how many points and how many rebounds he would get and how many times he would dunk on me. I'm 6-foot-8, so he got me quite a few inches," Brantley explained while bursting to laugh. 

Vidal Massiah has another anecdote with Edey.

"I went on a visit to IMG. After practice, we went out to eat and we ordered a big bowl of sushi. And he ate the whole bowl!" Massiah said breaking in laughter before continuing his explanation. 

"I was like ‘I'm going to have a couple of pieces.’ I was so mad at him, I was so impressed. Wow!. Somebody ate that much sushi. I think it was (a bowl) for a family. It was huge," the Kings Nation director said. 

"He ate it in less than an hour. He has his own eating technique. You are not watching, you're about your business, and you focus on what you are doing, maybe having a conversation. But sooner than later you turned around and the food was gone. He has a big appetite, he is eating for one, but for a normal person is like eating five." 

Edey won over Massiah and Brantley with such amusing moments, but many a true word is spoken in jest. He might not do whatever he wants with Brantley but he'll dominate mercilessly whoever dares to stop him on his way to the rim. He might not be intending to show Massiah anything special when he devoured that family-size bowl, but has a scary appetite to succeed, and he won't hesitate to satisfy his endless hunger as a competitor through his determination.

As Sakuragi did in the emblematic Japanese anime, Edey might have met basketball late, but it was in time to discover and develop his tremendous hidden power. His infinite desire to learn has to help him catch up to the point of meeting those modern big man requirements. 

But, according to Massiah, he can be so dominant that he might not need to be submissive to accept the status quo of the shooting and mobile modern big men.

"He has proved to be smart, talented, and resilient enough to figure it out. Even if he doesn't find a consistent shooting can dominate in his own way," the Kings Nation coach said.

So who knows if Zach Edey could be an in-reverse trendsetter, a throwback to the giants from the 90s — both in style and success. 

But taking a look at history in another way, what he is most likely to be is the man who continues with the giant careers for the young Grizzlies. Pau Gasol put the franchise on the map in the 00s after the organization's move from Vancouver to Memphis, and former Raptor Marc Gasol picked up the baton to take it to the next level in the 2010s. He converted the team into a contender before helping to flood Toronto with a never-before-seen euphoria in 2019. 

Edey appears to be following in their footsteps. At least, Brantley is clear when asked if the Canadian center could be the next Grizzlies big man who leaves his footprint. 

"Yeah, I hope so," he said.

Edey has never been quiet, but basketball is the language that he uses to speak. The way he leaves the glass shaking and opponents gasping for breath is loud enough for Edey.

"He is not going to back down from anybody. The guy is a lion built for battle. Do you see lions? They don't back down, that's what he is," Brantley said.

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