There’s no other way to put it: Kingston’s Aaliyah Edwards is living the dream.
At a young age, while playing for the Kingston Impact, it was clear she would become something special. She followed that up by winning city, regional and provincial championships at Frontenac Secondary School and eventually landed a scholarship to play with the UConn Huskies in the NCAA south of the border, receiving countless awards and honours during her four years in Storrs, Conn..
Although she never achieved her goal of winning a national championship, her sights were always set on making the WNBA. This spring, that dream came true when she was selected sixth overall by the Washington Mystics.
She didn’t have much time to relish the accomplishment, however. There was less than a month of turnaround between the draft and the start of the season.
Now halfway through her first WNBA campaign, Edwards is putting up decent numbers while coming off the bench, something she hasn’t done since her freshman year at UConn. She’s averaging 8.6 points per game and just under six rebounds, putting her sixth in team scoring.
“Right now, I’m just making sure that I’m bringing the same energy that the first group is bringing and vice versa,” Edwards said on a Zoom call from Washington, DC. “If I’m starting, I’m going to start to set the tone with the first group.”
That mentality has made Edwards one of the top rookies this season along with Indiana’s Caitlin Clark and Chicago’s Angel Reese. It’s also made league veterans, like Las Vegas’ A’ja Wilson, take notice of the 22-year-old, even offering words of encouragement before the two played each other for the first time.
“Everyone has expectations but to get the validation from those vets means everything to me. Those are the people I was watching on TV before I came to league,” Edwards said.
“To match up against (Wilson), she’s MVP, she’s two-time champ, Olympian, all these accolades that she’s won because she’s just so dominant and to compete against that and to challenge myself up against her, it’s more than I can ask for,” she added.
The jump from college to the pros has been relatively smooth for the Kingston native. She’s a solid contributor for the Mystics and has started a handful of games. But that’s not to say the level of competition in the W didn’t take some adjusting.
“I just knew it was going to be hard and you’re going to have to play a lot of smart basketball because, with me coming in as one of the youngest in the league, a lot more people have experience than me. A lot more people have been in situations that I haven’t been exposed to as yet,” she said.
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Maybe the biggest adjustment for Edwards this season has been that the Mystics are a losing team, sitting near the bottom of the WNBA standings after starting the season 0-12. They have since turned things around and have a 6-7 record since notching their first win of the season on June 11.
“The games came by so quick that you had to have a short-term memory and focus on the next opponent, focus on the next goal. But it was tough.”
Edwards has always been on winning teams, going back to her rep basketball days with Kingston Impact, and then with Frontenac Secondary School and later Crestwood Preparatory College. Although the Huskies never won a national championship, with Edwards in their lineup they were a perennial powerhouse.
“I’m just trying to keep that mindset of still competing at a high level and still holding those same expectations that I’ve had since I was at Kingston Impact. But also giving myself grace and just staying patient, staying ready,” Edwards said.
But with a month-long break coming up due to the Paris Olympics, Edwards is confident in the Mystics and their ability to make a push for the WNBA playoffs.
“I feel like our team, we’re trending upwards and that’s what we wanted. And I feel like once you come back in the Olympic break, we’re going to do even better than what we’re producing right now.”
A self-described competitor, Edwards’ mindset is to do whatever it takes to become successful. And although her ambitions are sky-high, she is content to trust the process.
“In the same sense, like it’s my rookie year, I’m in a new team with a new program and it’s unlikely that we’re going to have a perfect season.”
But her expectations are different on the international stage. Edwards is now in Spain with Team Canada for its Olympics training camp.
Aaliyah is already an Olympian, having played for Canada as an 18-year-old during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics where Canada finished in ninth place.
“Our first game against France, that’s going to be tough because it’s the home team and we’re playing in their environment,” Edwards said of the tournament. “I think as long as we stick to what we do well and as long as we are ready for the challenge will be successful, we can’t back down.”
Canada’s other round-robin games are versus Nigeria and Australia, and its roster features seven players with WNBA experience, including Edwards, however, she’s unsure of the role she’ll play so with many veterans in the lineup.
“I’m not really sure what to expect, but my competitive drive, my relentless spirit and my effort is not going to change,” Edwards said. “So just making sure that I stick to those values that I bring every day on the court.”
A challenging part for any international team is the ability to create chemistry on the court. Many of Canada’s players are coming from the WNBA, and have not been able to play together since the last national team camp.
“We’ve got players playing overseas and we’ve got players in the W who are in seasons right now during the summer, but (other teams) have to go through the same problem,” Edwards said of the dilemma Canada and other teams are facing.
“So as long as we can be the first one to do that and to get connected and to apply everything that we the coaches are asking us to do, I think that will be fine.”
Regardless of what her part of the Canadian roster will be, Edwards is expecting big things from the Red and White. Canada Basketball’s senior women’s national team successfully qualified for their fourth consecutive Olympic Games by finishing third in one of four FIBA Women’s Olympic Qualification Tournaments in February.
“I think we’ve gotten better and we’re just more confident in what we’re doing. … I’m excited to rejoin the group and to see what magic we can bring.”
“But, you know, I want to bring back some hardware to Canada,” she added.
And hopefully, a medal-winning performance will help keep the sports’ growth moving forward. Edwards says between the women’s and men’s national teams, which is boasting its most NBA star-studded roster ever, there is a lot to be excited for on the hardcourt.
“The sport is bigger than me and it’s really about, you know, showing out for those who fought so much and to use all the love and support that we get from Canada,” she said.
“I’m just super proud of what our country has become. We’re not only labelling ourselves as a hockey country but also a basketball country as well. And I think that each experience, each competition like this, we’re just evolving.”