VJ Edgecombe may a rookie, but he sure didn’t look like one on Wednesday night.
The Philadelphia 76ers’ third overall pick was superb in the first game of his NBA career, putting up 34 points, seven rebounds, three assists and a steal in his team’s 117-116 win against the Boston Celtics.
That surpassed Allen Iverson (30 points) for the most points ever scored by a rookie in a Sixers’ debut, and it was a historical performance on a number of fronts:
On a night when the first two picks of the 2025 NBA draft were set to make their debuts against one another, No. 1 Cooper Flagg for the Dallas Mavericks and No. 2 Dylan Harper for the San Antonio Spurs, it was the third pick in the draft who made the first big impression of the night.
“I worked every day, and all my life, for moments like this. This is my dream,” Edgecombe told reporters after the game. “I prayed for this. I always prayed to make it to the NBA and to stay in the NBA. Man, yeah, that was crazy. That surpassed my expectation, to be honest.”
Edgecombe also reacted to breaking LeBron James’ 2003 record for most points scored by a player in their first quarter as he dropped 14 in the first quarter:
“It feels good to have my name mentioned with LeBron,” Edgecombe told reporters. “I must say, it’s amazing. But hopefully [I’m] going to have a long career ahead of me. That’s what mattered most, man: longevity. Knowing LeBron has been there for 20-plus years. So I’m hoping I can do that one day.”
And his performance had NBA fans and pundits alike all kinds of excited for his potential:
Edgecombe didn’t provide empty stats, either. He played fantastic defense; he made the right passes when available and limited turnovers (two); he was efficient offensively (13-of-26 from the field, 5-of-13 from three).
He wasn’t just chucking up shots and gathering counting stats, in other words. He played within the flow of the game and helped the Sixers steal a win on the road.
There will be 81 more games to determine this season’s Rookie of the Year winner, but coming into the season Flagg was seen as sort of the foregone conclusion in that conversation. One game into his NBA career, Edgecombe has suddenly made it a much more interesting conversation.
Sixers fans have endured some disappointing outcomes in recent years, as the Joel Embiid era has never quite lived up to expectations (or gotten past the second round). This season may ultimately be similar, but if Edgecombe truly has the sort of potential he flashed on Wednesday night, a future built around him and Tyrese Maxey feels very promising.
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