“A WEAPON ALL OVER THE COURT”
I t was pouring rain in Kingston, Ont., and Aaliyah Edwards was driving to the bucket on a cement slab in her family’s backyard. She and her dad, Eddie, had made the basketball court earlier that day, putting up the hoop and painting red free-throw and three-point lines. But not long after the paint dried and Edwards started draining her first shots, down came the rain. Her mom, Jackie, saw her 15-year-old daughter getting soaked in the backyard, so she tried to intervene.
“Aaliyah!” Jackie yelled. “You’ve got to get out of the rain!” Edwards looked at her mom, who’d been her first competitive basketball coach, and calmly explained: “I’m working on a new move.” She got back to it, and minutes later, Eddie joined and started rebounding for her. Jackie laughed and took out her phone to record them playing in the rain.
It’s a moment that still stands out to Jackie years later, one she feels says a lot about her youngest child. Edwards always worked hard and always had to finish what she started. Jackie laughs remembering another: When Edwards, taking a year of tap, jazz and ballet at age nine, told her dance instructor: “I’m not a ballerina, but all that footwork is going to help me become a great basketball player.”
That effort — and the fancy footwork — did the trick. Earlier this season, Edwards was selected by the Washington Mystics sixth overall in the WNBA draft, the highest a Canadian has ever been taken. Through to the Olympic break, the former University of Connecticut star ranks top five among first-year players in blocks and rebounds, and her name is up there with Angel Reese’s and Caitlin Clark’s as the top Rookie of the Year candidates in a stacked class.
Soon, the forward with the purple and yellow braids, the mega-watt smile and the face shield she’s worn in games since she broke her nose two years ago will be back on a global stage, playing in her second Olympic Games. And just as she has adapted quickly to the pro ranks, Edwards will look to hit the ground running in France, aiming to help her country make history. If you ask the Mystics forward, she’s “so different” as a player than she was in Tokyo three years ago, now boasting more experience, confidence and skill. As Team Canada point guard Shay Colley puts it, “Aaliyah is a weapon — all over the court.” That’s welcome news to a fifth-ranked team looking to become the first Canadian women to win an Olympic basketball medal. “We’re all coming in with a new energy,” Edwards says. “And a real hunger to get on that podium.”
C oach Fabienne Blizzard had already named Ontario’s U15 team for the 2016 national championship when she heard about a 13-year-old old who would have cracked the roster if only she’d known about the tryouts. Blizzard got the tip from a Basketball Canada staffer based in Kingston, and though she wouldn’t take a player who hadn’t tried out, the coach decided to make the two-hour drive from Ottawa to see Aaliyah Edwards for herself.
She watched five minutes of Edwards playing for her Kingston Impact and Blizzard’s scouting mission was complete. “Oh my gosh — defensively, she was a monster,” the coach says now. “I’ll never forget, she’s in the middle of the floor stealing the ball from someone, then scoring, again and again. It was like a clinic. I was sold.”
Blizzard was used to seeing talented young players focus solely on scoring, but here was a kid who played defence first, and turned it into offence. As the coach later discovered, Edwards learned that approach from her oldest brother, Jermaine, 14 years her senior, who, in his wisdom, emphasized that style of play.
“I always knew if I did my work on defence, I could end up with the ball, and I could give it to my teammates or get a bucket at the other end of the court, and I took pride in that,” Edwards explains. “I think that’s why I never liked playing one-on-one with my oldest brother, because he was one of the best defenders ever. He outsmarted you on every play, and I think maybe I got some of that from him. He was always in the gym telling me: ‘Do your work early, so you have an opportunity on the offensive end.’”
For Blizzard, seeing Edwards’ skill and basketball IQ at 13 underlined her belief that a U14 team was essential to growing Ontario’s provincial program. She made a call to the provincial association and was told if she could find a coach, they would back the expansion. “So, I got on the horn and found a coach,” Blizzard says, with a laugh. That summer, she invited Edwards to a training camp for the new team.
Edwards was a multi-sport athlete who also starred in volleyball and track and field (her dad was a star hurdler as a kid in Jamaica, and coached her in hurdles and triple jump). She didn’t play rep basketball until she was 11 or 12 and joined her first Impact squad, coached by Jackie and Jermaine. “We were the underdog, and people would see the Impact on the schedule of the tournament and be like, ‘Oh, that’s an easy ‘W,’ but no, we went out and won bronze that year,” says Edwards, who’s still good friends with a bunch of those fellow underdogs. “That’s when I really fell in love with being a great teammate, playing for the person beside you, and developing that will to win.”
Attending that first U14 provincial camp only grew that will, because Edwards found herself surrounded by elite players for the first time. “When she came back from that camp, there was a look in her eye of ‘I want this. I’m going to go for this,’” Jackie says. “I noticed a shift in her relentlessness, her competitiveness, her commitment to the sport.” Edwards had always practiced hard, but now she trained hard outside of practice, too: going on five-kilometre runs in the mornings with her dad, jumping rope and doing push-ups and sit-ups after school.
In 2017, she made the U15 team, and led Ontario to a national championship, earning tournament MVP. “Her defence absolutely dominated our season,” Blizzard says. After hearing ‘O Canada’ play at the end of the tournament, Edwards told Jackie: “I want to play for Canada, mom.”
Edwards’ Twitter bio reads: “You want something? Go get it. Period.” It’s her family, her parents and her brothers, Jermaine and Jahmal (11 years older), who she credits for her go-getter attitude. “I think they’ve raised me to be a humble person, someone who just seizes the opportunity,” she says. Growing up, Edwards and Jermaine both admired Kobe Bryant’s play and approach to the game (the Lakers star is the reason Edwards sports yellow and purple braids), and she tried to mirror Bryant’s Mamba Mentality when it came to preparation and hard work. “I think maybe some days I took the ‘wake up at 4 a.m., go work out, go back to sleep, then wake up again, work out, go back to sleep, eat’ — I maybe took that a bit too literally,” Edwards says with a laugh. “I was the kid that in high school, I would wake up in the morning, go shoot. If I saw some of the guys on the boys’ basketball team, if they had practice, I would ask to join, or ask them to play one-on-one. I was that type of kid that any opportunity I had to get better that day, in that moment, I tried to.”
Starting when Edwards was in high school, she and Jermaine made the drive to Ottawa on weekends to train out of the Capital Courts Academy, which Blizzard cofounded. While Edwards logged time against other elite players who were often older than she was, Jermaine helped Blizzard coach Team Ontario athletes and younger players in the system. “Anyone who knew Jermaine, his energy was insane — it took over the gym in terms of encouraging kids to do things they didn’t even know they could do, and he’d be like, ‘yes you can!’” Blizzard recalls. “When you look at how he pushed his sister, it was probably next level for him. It was probably like, ‘I know you can do this. I know you can do this better.’ And with Aaliyah, we didn’t have to even nudge her for it. We saw that at the Team Ontario phase, where she wants to learn and she was just hungry for more knowledge.”
Back then, Blizzard regularly told the Edwards family hers was “just a different voice” in Aaliyah’s development, since Edwards had so much support and coaching from Jermaine and Jackie. In 2017, though, Edwards lost one of those foundational supports, when Jermaine passed away suddenly. Jackie says the cause of his death remains unknown, and that the family continues to get through the tragedy “with the grace of God.” After Jermaine’s passing, Blizzard visited the family to offer her support and sat with Edwards in her room for hours, mostly in silence. “Aaliyah was reflecting, being strong for her family,” Blizzard says. “I think she made the decision that she is playing for something bigger than her — and that’s been the way she’s played for a long time. It’s a different type of focus, a different type of energy.”
Edwards was then in Grade 9 and going through tryouts for Canada’s U16 team for the FIBA Americas Championship. Her family, together with Basketball Canada, decided she’d continue the selection process, which ended with the final 12 named in late May, just weeks before the tournament tipped off. “We got through it like most families, knowing that your loved one would want you to continue, would not want to be the reason why you didn’t pursue your goals and dreams,” Jackie says. “What Jermaine and Aaliyah really shared was that love for the game of basketball, and he shared the dedication and discipline with her.”
The 14-year-old Edwards made the FIBA Americas team, the youngest player on the roster. “She made every daily training environment better, and she never looked out of place,” says Jodi Gram, who coached the group. “We counted on her — she rebounded the basketball, she played defence. She had enough size to help us break pressure.”
Edwards averaged 8.4 points and 5.4 rebounds per game, helping Canada win silver. “I’m grateful for that experience,” she says, “because it really taught me a lot about playing for something bigger than yourself.”
That national team debut was her first time being away from family for an extended period, and ahead of her Grade 11 year, Edwards continued to chase her dreams, moving to Toronto to play for Crestwood Preparatory College. She arrived at Crestwood the same year the Toronto Raptors won the NBA championship and, says Marlo Davis, the school’s head coach and director of basketball, “a lot of people talked about her joining our program being similar to Kawhi [Leonard] joining the Raptors.” Edwards led her team to an undefeated season, and the 2019 Ontario Scholastic Basketball Association title.
It wasn’t just her talent that affected the program. “She shifted the culture for us in terms of her discipline, her work ethic, her leadership. Every day in practice, she treated it like it was a game. It was that consistency,” Davis says. “That raised the level for everyone.”
Unlike Leonard, Edwards returned the following season, leading Crestwood to a second-straight title, but before doing so, she hit another career milestone, earning her debut with the senior national team that summer, the youngest player for Canada at an exhibition tournament in Belgium. Centre Kayla Alexander recalls her first impressions of the 16-year-old Edwards’ play. “That’s she’s a workhorse, she’s really athletic, and I think she could really be something special,” Alexander, a co-captain for Canada in Paris, says. “I remember her being so fearless. She had this confidence about her that I absolutely loved on the court. She was vocal about what she was seeing and things she thought we could do on the court, and I really appreciated that. I was like, ‘Oh wow, she’s not afraid to insert herself, to say her piece.’”
Edwards recalls the competition was “a bit rough” in her senior team debut, since she was up against WNBA players representing other countries, many with the experience she aspired to have one day. She hadn’t grown to her full six-foot-three, and describes herself as “tiny and scrawny.”
“I was like, ‘How can I really tap into my potential and show my skillset?’” she says. “But I think all the girls on that team really took me under their wing and helped to lift me up and helped me to gain my confidence, really helped me to become the versatile and dynamic player that I am today. Because no matter what your age is, if you have the confidence and the skill and the drive to do it, you can really accomplish anything.”
She adds, with a laugh: “I did get some ‘know your place’ type moments with that team, too.”
The biggest came against Team USA, when Edwards was tasked with guarding former WNBA MVP Sylvia Fowles. “I don’t know, how can I describe it — I was just kinda there,” she says. “I was nowhere near compared to Sylvia Fowles, and it was a big moment, playing with my teammates against Team USA, all these players who play in the ‘W’ and I’m almost in awe as I’m playing them.”
Still, the awe didn’t stop Edwards from picturing herself at that level one day.
“Oh yeah,” she says. “I think I got a rebound over a couple of them, and I was like, ‘Wow, I can hang with the big cats.’”
P re-season training camp was just starting with the Mystics, and Edwards had recently moved into her place in D.C. She was on her way out of a grocery store when a woman she didn’t know started running down the street after her yelling: “Oh my gosh! Are you Aaliyah Edwards?”
Edwards confirmed that she was and the woman told her: “Welcome to D.C. — I hope you’re loving it! Let me know if anybody troubles you. Do you need anything?” And then she rushed off to get a few girlfriends so they could take a picture with the Mystics rookie who’d yet to take the court for a game.
Edwards got further confirmation that the home of the 2019 WNBA champions was excited about their top draft pick when she checked into the season opener on May 14 and got a massive cheer from the soldout crowd at Entertainment & Sports Arena. “It was amazing, because you never know how a crowd is going to react to you when you’re new,” Edwards says. At the time, though, she wasn’t soaking it in. Instead, the third-youngest player in the WNBA was thinking: “I hope I don’t make a mistake.”
Her first seconds of professional play began in the defensive end, where she was tasked with guarding 2021 MVP, Jonquel Jones. Edwards held her own, and in the second half she drained her first WNBA bucket, a baseline jumper that got the crowd going again. Less than a minute later, Mystics guard Brittney Sykes forced a turnover and Edwards bolted up the court, caught the pass and put in a lay-up. New York called a timeout, and Edwards and Sykes celebrated with a chest-bump. That’s when Edwards had a chance to soak in the 4,200 people cheering. “The support has been just amazing,” she says.
Edwards came to the Mystics from a Huskies program that enjoyed a lot of fanfare and incredible NCAA success. She graduated as an All-American, top-eight in the program’s history in both rebounds and double-doubles. In her four years at UConn, Edwards helped lead the Huskies to three Final Four appearances, including a national championship in 2022. With Washington, though, she joins a team going through a rebuild that sits at the bottom of the Eastern Conference, which has been one of the early challenges as she gets used to the pro ranks.
“One adjustment is not starting out the season the way I envisioned, you know, we were 0-12 to start,” she says. “I was hoping that my first win in the W would come faster than it did, but I’m super excited that it did. I think it’s only up from here.”
The Mystics picked up that first win on June 11, and now sit at 6-19. Edwards’ play has been one of the few bright spots for the team. In her first start, No. 24 finished a point shy of a double-double, with nine and 11. On June 6, she became just the sixth rookie in history to put up at least 20 points, 14 rebounds and four blocks in a game, joining a club that includes legends like Candace Parker and Tina Charles. She missed three games at the end of June due to a back injury, but returned with nine points in a loss against the two-time defending champion Las Vegas Aces. To date, Edwards ranks top 25 league-wide in rebounding on both ends of the court.
“The physicality the league brings, and also the pace of the game, those are two things that were challenging or me at first,” she says. “I try to use my versatility to my advantage as I’m facing bigger, stronger players in this league, especially the great vets in this league that have been so productive. I just have to play smarter each and every game. I’ve been trying to do that, and I think I’ve been doing that pretty well.”
Washington is starting to feel more like home, too. Edwards has thrown out a first pitch at a Nationals game and hyped up the crowd for the NWSL’s Washington Spirit. She’s also found some favourite restaurants and coffee shops in the city. “But nothing beats Kingston, obviously,” she points out. (Back home, Mayor Bryan Paterson declared the day of her WNBA debut ‘Aaliyah Edwards Day.’)
Her focus now shifts to another city that can’t top Kingston: Paris, where she’ll represent Canada on the Olympic stage for the second time since she debuted as a 19-year-old college student, the youngest member of the team at the COVID-delayed 2021 Games in Tokyo.
Team Canada associate head coach Steve Baur says the goal for Edwards at the last Games was to give her the experience on the Olympic stage so that she could grow into her current role as an integral part of this team. “When Aaliyah first debuted as an Olympian, she was a great athlete with great work ethic and potential. Three years later, she is an elite player that has turned that potential into reality,” he says. “Aaliyah will be counted on to score, rebound and defend against the best.”
Baur points to the many additions Edwards brings to the offence, including her decision-making and ability to attack and get to the line. “She can score out of ball screens, a threat to roll, shoots it well and can attack closeouts. She can play from the top to run the high-low or put the ball on the floor and get to the rim,” he says.
Edwards has higher expectations for both herself and her team at her second Olympic Games. “I have more experience under my belt, and I think that I’m more confident in what I’m doing right now, confident in knowing my body, confident in how I’ve improved my basketball IQ. I think overall I’m just prepared. I’m ready for this Olympics,” she says. “We’re really just going to come out and give 110-per cent effort. I’m super excited for how far we’ve come and excited for what’s to come.”
Though many of her national team teammates haven’t played alongside Edwards since last summer, they’ve noted the many improvements she’s made to her game. “She definitely has developed her outside game, her shooting, and her physicality has really developed over the last couple of years,” says Colley.
“I have seen growth in her physical strength and basketball IQ, offensive ability, expanding her game with attacks [away from] the rim, off the bounce, being able to shoot from the outside a bit more. Every year she’s always adding something to her game and doing something to improve,” adds Alexander. “She plays both sides of the court. She will rebound for you, she will get stops on defence, she can get steals, she’ll play physical, she’s someone who can lock down. But on the offensive side too, she can play inside or outside. She’s a great passer. She just does so much and brings so much to the team.”
That includes energy. “Happy Aaliyah, cheery Aaliyah,” Alexander says. “She’s such a joy to be around and she brings up the people around her. If she’s in the room, it’s instantly a better mood. That’s the person that she is. She’s a good person from the inside out. She’s so humble, she works hard, she cares about people, she has such a great heart, she’s passionate about what she does. I really admire her.”
Edwards loves to dance, and regularly posts proof to TikTok. She also shares her game-day outfits on social media, including a recent Rugrats-inspired jacket and, earlier in the season, a diamond basketball purse. Edwards’ cat is “probably the love of her life,” says Colley, and the young forward makes sure to show the cat to the veteran guard every time they FaceTime, because Colley doesn’t like cats. “She’s hilarious, she’s very outgoing, she loves sharing her life with her friends,” Colley says. “She’s a well-rounded, caring person, and that’s what we get on and off the court.”
When Edwards made Canadian history back in April at the WNBA Draft, among her supporters there to witness the moment was her high school coach, Davis. “I saw her get up every day and commit to this,” Davis says, adding the moment felt emotional and surreal, like it was just yesterday she was leading Crestwood to back-to-back championships.
“I think this is the year she makes herself a global star,” Davis adds. “I think she can help a team win a championship. She can help put Canada on the podium at the Olympics. I wouldn’t be surprised if all those goals are checked off by the time it’s all said and done. When she’s on that Olympic stage, she’s going to thrive.”
“As great as she is, she is still on the ascension of her young career,” Baur adds, especially since, as he’s observed, “she is constantly working to get better, and has no off-switch when she is working.”
Team Canada is now practicing in Guadalajara, Spain, before heading to Lille, France, on July 25. Olympic group play will be held there, and Canada plays its first game July 29 against the hosts.
The same night Edwards played her last game with the Mystics before the Olympic break, she boarded a red-eye to Guadalajara to join the national team. She didn’t get much sleep on the flight, but still made it for the team practice mere hours after her flight touched down.
When practice ended, Edwards had a request. It wasn’t to go to sleep or put her feet up and get some much-needed rest. No, Edwards wanted more court time. She wanted to put up more shots.