VJ Edgecombe had heard the whispers.
They said that his draft stock had continued to climb after he finished his freshman season at Baylor. They suggested he might even be the third pick in the 2025 NBA Draft Wednesday night. But he had nothing concrete until he got the call from the Philadelphia 76ers and found out it was true.
It was 15 seconds later that NBA commissioner Adam Silver announced his name.
“I had no clue what was going on,” said Edgecombe, the two-time Newsday Long Island Player of the Year out of Long Island Lutheran High. “I was like just living in the moment until they [told] me that I’m going there . . . They hadn’t told me [anything] — it was all up in the air.”
The moment, those 15 seconds, were a little overwhelming. But he found his focus on the future quickly.
“I work hard and everything is paying off, but the work won’t stop,” he said.
“I’m definitely looking forward to going to Philly, meeting the team, getting ready for Summer League, training camp and all that. I’m focused on playing now.”
Edgecombe said Tuesday that he’d come to LuHi from the Bahamas to go against the highest level of high school competition. Now he gets a crack at the highest level there is.
“Every night you’re going to see something different,” Edgecombe, 19, said.
“I’ve got to be mentally prepared for that, knowing that it’s grown men I’m going against.”
Philadelphia has other young, talented guards in Tyrese Maxey and Jared McCain. Asked if he knows where he will fit, Edgecombe replied, “It’s the NBA and they ain’t going to promise you nothing.”
“I’m just going in there, whatever the coach needs me to do, I’m going to go do,” he added. “If that requires me coming off the bench, if that requires me starting [or] playing alongside both Maxey and McCain, it doesn’t matter. I’m just going there to play.”
Edgecombe knows that the 76ers haven’t won a championship since 1983 and that there is a fan base starved for a title. But he likes the situation.
“[Winning it] would mean a lot,” he said.
“It’s been a minute since they won, so just going there and being that piece that’s going to help them get over the hump would mean a lot to me, would mean a lot to the fans . . . I’m excited to go out there and see what we can do.”
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.