IN HIS ROLE as the executive director of USA Basketball, it’s not often Grant Hill has a hard time contacting players he’s considering for the team. Even in non-Olympic years, that’s a call virtually every NBA superstar will take or return quickly.
But, in his attempts to assemble the 2023 FIBA World Cup squad, there was one star Hill couldn’t reach.
“I couldn’t get ahold of Ant,” Hill told ESPN of the then-21-year-old who has taken the league by storm. “I talked to [Minnesota Timberwolves president] Tim Connelly. I talked to all these people around him. But I just kind of got the vibes that he was on the fence about it and didn’t really know why.”
Anthony Edwards was young and had little experience with the FIBA game, having participated in a pair…
