Tim Legler

But there's something about the wiring that takes a little longer for them to understand and recognize, like, it's okay for me to be an alpha right now on this trip, on this possession, in the open floor.

Like, just go and not think.

Let muscle memory take over and just be what you are as a natural athlete and player.

Some guys get there earlier.

And Edgecombe, he got there immediately.

Like, as soon as he walked out of the tunnel the first night in Boston.

I first laid eyes on Cooper Flagg when he was about 14, 15 years old.

And I started telling everybody I knew about him then.

Like, I'm just like, just wait till this guy's ready for the draft.

At that point, of course, you don't even know where he's going to go to school.

You don't know any of that.

I just know that when you see what jumped out to me immediately was this dude has a competitive toughness about him, like an edge.

And he was a target.

Every time he walked onto a court at the AAU level, like every team was looking at him.

They were talking to him, starting with the opening jump ball circle.

He's got somebody in his ear telling him what they're not going to let him do to them tonight.

And he's been hearing that since he was, you know, literally 12, 13, 14 years old.

And some guys can handle all that.

Some guys can't.

He clearly could.