For All The Kids Still Wishing

I don’t even know where to start. I’m just so thankful. I made it from Bimini, from just a tiny island, all the way to the Sixers.

I’ll never forget draft night. I was in the green room, in New York, with my mom, my coach, and all my loved ones. I had my cousins and my aunties with me.

So we back there, I’m chillin’ with my family, vibing. Watching the commissioner call Cooper and Dylan. But I’ve also got one eye on my agent, you know? Then he gets a call, and he just looks at me and nods. Like the Secret Service or something. Haha. After that it was all a blur. I was just trying to gather myself to stand up, hug my family, hug everyone, then go up on stage. Right when you come off, there’s an ESPN interview. Then I think it’s like Good Morning America or something.

I remember they were like, “We heard you have something inside your suit.”

I opened up my jacket and looked down, and I just started tearing up. It said Sugar for my first coach, Grathen “Sugar” Robins. He passed away a while back. He was the first person who told me I could make it to the league. He always believed in me. Always. Seeing his name …. that’s when it all really hit me. It was like, Damn, we really did it. I know you up there proud of me.

It was definitely an emotional night. One moment I’ll never forget is when I was talking in an interview about my mom, and I cried just remembering the struggle. I mean, we’re from Bimini. Our island is seven miles long, half a mile wide. So if a tsunami come, pray for us! But seriously, things like this don’t happen for our people every day. Getting to the NBA is hard. Getting to the NBA from Bimini? I don’t know the exact odds, but it’s gotta be like 0.000001% chance. That’s probably not even enough zeros, to be honest.

So yeah, I was emotional as hell.

My family used to live off a generator.

Now I play for the Philadelphia 76ers.

For All The Kids Still Wishing | VJ Edgecombe | The Players’ Tribune

After the ceremony, my family and friends had a little celebration for me. Everybody was lit. But as it got later and later, I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a small part of me, in the back of mind, like Yo, I am TIRED, bro. I was exhausted. All the adrenaline and tears and celebrating. I couldn’t wait to go to bed. When I finally felt like everything was kinda dying down and we had enough memories to last a lifetime …. I snuck off a little early. I went to my room and changed. I’m like, Man, I’m out of these clothes. That was legit the longest I’ve ever had on a suit. Then I crashed.

Picture me just stretched out in the hotel room, on top of the covers straight dozing, you know. Down for the count. Maybe a little drool. Haha. Then all of sudden my phone start buzzing. It’s one of my homies.

I’m like, “Yo, what’s good?”

Tired as you know what, wiping my eyes.

Bruh is yelling.

“Man, what are you DOING???!”

Da, da, da. Basically, Get your ass up.

And listen, I guess I kind of get it … I just got drafted to the NBA. So I got up and went to hang out with my friends at their Airbnb. Now, I could tell a story and say I stayed up the rest of night partying til the sun come up, but I gotta be honest. I was so tired I fell asleep again on the couch at their crib. Lol. When I finally woke up, it was the next morning. And I had to leave in three hours for Philly.

I had to be on the PJ, you know.

NBA — big time now. You know the vibes.

Nah. Just playing. I’m on that rookie deal.

I drove.

If you ask me, every country is kinda similar, where you have the tourist side, and then you have the rough side — or just where the locals live.

Bimini is no different.

The culture on my island, and in the Bahamas in general, it’s a loving culture. Walking around, you see a lot of the elders sitting outside chillin’, people-watching. It’s normal for us to wave or greet everyone we see. “Good morning,” “Good afternoon,” “How are you doing?” Or something like that. And just keep it pushing. You won’t find that everywhere, everyone talking to each other. But in Bimini, everyone knows everybody. So if anything happens, the whole island knows. It’s a beautiful island, too. The water is crystal clear. And everyone’s house is painted different colors. I remember times I painted my grandma’s house. Sometimes people want a new house theme or color, just to get a different vibe.

Growing up, I spent most of my time outside in the yard playing with my cousins or on a court somewhere with my friends. We didn’t have electricity running through the house during the daytime usually. We didn’t have everything we wanted, but we had everything we needed, you know? My mom made sure of that. Being raised by her and my grandma was honestly the biggest blessing.

They always preached that manners and respect would get you far in the world. And Mom made sure she disciplined us when she know we do something that ain’t right! I used to get a lot of whoopin’s. Haha. I got the most out of my mom kids for sure. The shoe…. Yeahhh. She had them little plastic jelly-type slippers, you know what I mean? Man, them right there???? Woof. They were a little flimsy, but they stung. We brought it on ourselves just coming home late, after the streetlights came on and things like that. Oh, man, I’m not mad at all. It taught me discipline, and it kept me safe.

I started hooping when I was seven or eight, because of Sugar.

He influenced youth basketball on the whole island, starting from my mom’s generation. It was his dream to give back to our community. Something funny about him — man, he drove his golf cart everywhere. I honestly can’t picture him without it. It was a two-seater, with this little iron bed, you know how trucks have in the back? Like that. On the island, everyone got golf carts, man. I think it’s more golf carts than cars, honestly. Anyway, that’s how I’ll always remember him, with his sunglasses on and a big smile, driving up the road to my house.

When he held basketball camps, he made sure to invite every kid out to the park, to help us get better and see who really loved the game. We used to have really intense games. But we were just kids enjoying ourselves. We played all the time at a court we call The Pond. And we played in a park — we call this place The Field. I had an aunt that lived nearby, and when the sun started to set, she used to come outside and holler at us.

Like, “Go home!! It’s getting too late!”

Some nights I didn’t want to go, but then she’d say she’s going to call my mom, and I’m going to get whooped. Hahah. So that was the only way to get me away from the courts.

I will never forget those long days and fun nights in Bimini.

I have a favorite memory I can tell you, but in a strange way, it’s also kind of sad.

It was the summer of 2014. I was a super young kid. Like age nine. That summer, Sugar took our youth basketball team to compete in a tournament in Freeport. He paid for me to be able to go. This was my first trip anywhere ever … I don’t think I’d ever been more excited for anything in my whole life. It was like, I get to fly on a plane? To play basketball?? And listen, it was a tiny little plane and only a 15-, 20-minute flight, to be honest. But it felt so freaking cool at the time. To really understand, you have to picture it from a child’s eyes. I still remember the way it felt looking out the window down at the islands, little sandy spots in the big sea. It was a little scary, but also a little magical.

The tournament was called HOYTES. I’ll never forget there was a team there from Nassau, called Showtime. Everyone thought they were the best team and were going to get the trophy. But the thing is, there was this other team that nobody was even thinking about. A team from Bimini — seven miles long — that you never knew was going to win it all.

To any kids facing those doubts, if you’re reading this — don’t believe what they tell you.

– VJ Edgecombe

Man it was so dope. I just have to give so much credit to Sugar. He believed in all the kids on the island. He always used to talk about wanting to see a change for us. That’s what’s stuck with me over the years. He sponsored me and other kids, too, so he knew better than anyone the different obstacles everyone faced at home. He just wanted us to have a better life for ourselves and our families. And he blessed us, man.

That little memory will always have a special place in my heart. I will always cherish it because when I think about it now, it feels like we won the tournament for him. It’s almost like we got to say, “Thank you for everything. This one’s for you.”

But the truth is, we didn’t. One year later, he passed away. He was battling an illness that we didn’t know about because we were just kids. I didn’t process it for a minute. Didn’t believe it for real. It hurt me a lot, especially because I felt like I was his favorite. Definitely, I felt like his favorite. I learned so many little things from him just by watching how he treated others, how he communicated, how he was always engaged and present. He helped me grow so much with basketball, but also in life. So it truly devastated me. In my mind, it was like, How could this happen? We were just in Freeport winning the tournament. Can’t we go back? Can’t we just be there forever?

I went to his funeral. All of the kids on the island that played sports were there, and everyone else whose lives he impacted. We just wanted to pay our respects. But the thing is, it was definitely going to be hard for us to sit in church and listen to the ceremony for a funeral at that age. So I remember all of the kids, we stood together outside. Even now, it still hurts picturing it. More than a dozen little kids dressed in black suits, huddled together outside of a church for a funeral.

I hate that he never got to see me walk across that stage in New York, just like he predicted. I just hope he’s up there smiling.

In 2020, I moved to the U.S. to go to school. I was 14 turning 15. And at the time, I had no college offers. I have a brother, Tario, who’s four years older than me. He was enrolled at a university in Florida. Covid came around, his school was shut down, so he moved to South Florida, got an apartment, and took me in. He worked from home, while I was just there in the house playing video games. I had no worries. Nobody knew where life was going, so I just played the game all day every day while he worked. But he sacrificed a lot for me. Now, he’s like my best friend.

Through a Bahamian friend, I got connected to an AAU coach, Coach Justice, and from there, I started playing with the South Florida Kings. Coach Justice knew that I had nobody to take me to practice and games, so he used to come pick me up. He also worked out with me in the mornings when he had time. He believed in me from the jump. He thought I was the best player in the county, at the time. I played for him for two years. Coach Justice then connected me with Coach Ricks who was the director and coach of Austin Rivers SE Elite on ADIDAS 3SSB Circuit for a bigger opportunity to be seen by college coaches and NBA Scouts. Then it was time for me to go. I made that decision on my own, before really even talking to anybody. I told Tario like, “Man, I’m going to make it happen. This won’t be all for nothing.”

So for certain schools, the top schools in the country — the Montverde’s, the LuHi’s’s, the IMG’s, those types of schools — they recruit kids to play on that stage. And it was LuHi’s first year of really being at that level. They’d seen me play and wanted me to be a part of it. I remember telling Coach Ricks like, “I need somewhere to go to school. I want to continue just growing my name, trying to get some offers. I understand my path is different from everyone else’s. And I don’t mind that. I’m willing to do whatever it takes. I’m going to play my hardest to get to the NBA.” And yeah, he had some connects. He said, “LuHi is ready.” I didn’t have to pay for housing or anything. I’m so grateful to LuHi for everything they did for me. That’s where my life changed.

That was 2022.

Fast-forward to summer 2024, and I’m getting invited to play for Team Bahamas for the Olympic qualifiers.

I was like, Why not?

It felt like a good opportunity to level up my game by practicing with that caliber of players — NBA players like Deandre Ayton, Buddy Hield, Eric Gordon. Something for the exposure, you know? Basically, I wasn’t expecting to actually play. Haha. I thought I was going to get the young buck treatment. You know, sit on the sidelines, watch the game, practice….. But also, deep down I was like, I can’t let that happen.

On the first day of practice, I wanted to make myself seen. I’m talking noise to everybody, just building my confidence. I knew that being younger, they’re going to think you’re scared. And I was not scared. I just thought, Man, y’all going to remember me in this practice. If y’all don’t ever see me again, y’all going to remember me. I couldn’t waste my opportunity. Even if I didn’t get in a game, I had to show them what I could do. I learned a lot from those practices, too. We weren’t there to mess around. It was serious, every time. That was the main thing I took away from it. I remember in Greece, they put the young ones versus the NBA players, and we held our own for sure.

I remember the first game we played against Finland. They had fans there with chants and all that. Seeing different countries showing their passion for the game, man. That was amazing. Then, Coach threw me in the game, and I was ready. The first time I stepped on the floor, I’m like, It’s basketball, I’m not going to overthink this. I just went out there and picked up, guarded, made shots, made plays at the rim, playmade. Whatever I had to do, I was willing to do. And it was a breakout game for me off rip. I had something like 20 points, while only shooting I think 11 shots, and being on the floor with pros.

I was just playing my role. That’s all it was, just playing basketball.

Then I went to Baylor.

Coach Drew’s impact on me was tremendous. He had a big impact on my life, especially off the court, spiritually, with staying connected to God. That’s something I really pride myself on. I know the ball will stop bouncing one day. Hopefully no time soon. But whenever that happens I just want to make sure I’m guided by my values and my faith.

That’s mainly why I chose Baylor. For their culture and the standards over there. Even though we didn’t have the year we wanted on the floor, I felt like we all grew off the floor. The wins and losses, it only matters for one season. But your character will impact you for life. I won’t lie, losing to Duke was tough. In North Carolina, by the way. We played them 30 minutes away from their city, so their fans were definitely in the building. The atmosphere was crazy. And who doesn’t want to win the national championship? But only one team out of 365 will. I just tried to take something away from the whole experience. At least we went down against the No. 1 team. I ain’t too mad at that. I’m still mad that we took the L, though. I probably always will be.

But that’s OK.

That’s how I know it all meant something to me.

The journey has been crazy, man. It’s just surreal.

Philly, I’m proud to be one of you, now.

Thank you to the 76ers organization for giving me the opportunity. I couldn’t be more grateful to be here.

Now, I’ve gotten the chance to explore a little bit. I’ve had some Philly cheesesteaks. I’ve run up the Rocky Steps. I’m just getting comfortable and getting my bearings. But I’m really looking forward to earning your respect, and the respect of my teammates and coaches. I’m just trying to be a sponge and learn and absorb, and hopefully get better.

I’ve been playing it all back in my head for the past few weeks, just trying to process everything. Thinking about the work I put in, and the sacrifices my family made. I just wanted to write a little something for my people who got me here, and for all the kids still wishing. I hope I can do my own small part to continue Sugar’s vision for inspiring the kids where I’m from.

There was a time when I didn’t think any of this was possible. I’ve heard it all before. “You can’t do this, you can’t do that.” I had to learn how to block it out and not let it bother me. To any kids facing those doubts, if you’re reading this — don’t believe what they tell you. Let it motivate you to keep trying harder.

They will ALWAYS say, You can’t, you can’t, you can’t.

They will be wrong.