With Michael Jordan playing fairy godfather, it didn’t take long for Anthony Edwards to etch his name in NBA history. On the way to a 131-122 win against the Cavaliers, Antman surpassed Kobe Bryant in a club that only a few NBA players reach this soon. To think this time last year, he was frustrated about his ceiling. And now a mindset change has transformed his game.

Anthony Edwards amassed 10,000 career points on January 8, 2026, becoming the youngest guard in NBA history to reach this milestone. Bryant was 24 years and 194 days old when he reached this landmark, while Ant did it at 24 years and 156 days old.

This didn’t come easy, though. Ant had to recalibrate himself to reach this point. The 10,000th point came off a mid-range jumper at the 6:54 mark of the fourth quarter. Edwards, who’s been criticized a lot for taking risky step-back threes, has been taking more mid-range shots this season. When asked about it after the game, he admitted it’s a deliberate change.

“Super far,” he said about the work he’s put in bringing him here. “Because nine times out of ten last year, when teams would trap me, I probably just had to get off of it. But now I can go to the post and play out of that. So, just expanding my game.”

Edwards was also full of praise for the Black Mamba after the game, saying, “I’m kinda sick that I got it in front of Kobe, I wish I would have waited like 100 days or something.”

He’s specifically working with C. Hines (Chris Hines), a Timberwolves trainer, in the gym, but declined to reveal their workouts. What he did say is that he’s now better at finding his teammates, such as Rudy Gobert, Donte DiVincenzo, and Jaden McDaniels, when he has shot blockers in his way.

In his fifth season since the Wolves picked him first overall in 2020, Edwards has never stopped evolving. On Thursday night, he didn’t even have to be the highest scorer to reach this landmark.

He finished the game with 25 points while shooting 50% from the floor. He tallied a game-high 9 assists, marking a significant improvement as a playmaker.

A well-timed intervention changed Anthony Edwards’ game

A year ago, Anthony Edwards was in a slump. Teams had figured out how to slow him down, making it difficult for him to drive up to the rim. He was so frustrated that he made a phone call to the legendary guard, who had the most experience being walled in night after night.

Nobody wanted to believe Michael Jordan actually took that call. Then another snippet of MJ’s Insight to Excellence aired in December 2025, where Jordan himself confirmed it.

He completely flipped Ant’s mindset about getting double-teamed by saying, “That’s the highest respect that you can ever get if a team feels like they got to double-team you. Now you figure out how to break the double team.”

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Once Edwards understood that, it wasn’t difficult for MJ to explain how he needed to get to his positions faster and dish assists to keep the ball moving. The results are shown in the statistics.

The 2024-25 season was his lowest shooting percentage at the rim, at 63.8%. In fact, he had never gone over the 60% range in his career. This season, his efficiency is at career highs at any point on the floor.

At the rim, he’s 71% (64% last season), 47% from the midrange (was 39% last season), and 41% from the arc (40% last season).

Ant was specifically asked about his frustrations with getting double-teamed last January. He said he’s putting in the work in the gym and dropping dimes to teammates to overcome it. He’s finally reached a point where he’s “super comfortable” with it. Now that’s scary.