Does Timberwolves Anthony Edwards still feast on Popeyes chicken?
By Bret Stuter
Minnesota Timberwolves Anthony Edwards used to love his Popeye’s chicken. It was his trademark, whenever he played well, he would treat himself to a bag of Popeye’s chicken and fries. In fact, he showed up at post-game press conferences on more than one occasion with a sack of fast food feasts:
It was enough to break the tension in the room. Whether the TImberwolves had played well or not, a reference by the young Edwards was certain to generate some chortles in the room.
But it did not end there. Uber Eats leveraged the popularity of Anthony Edwards and his love for Popeye’s to star him in a commercial with Memphis Grizzlies’ now-suspended star Ja Morant:
It was a funny commercial, but not everyone was laughing.
Whenever Edwards mentioned feasting on fast-food chicken, his teammate Karl-Anthony Towns cringed. It’s not that Towns dislikes spicy chicken. It’s simply that, in order to sustain a long career as an NBA player, nutritional decisions make a huge difference:
At the beginning of the 2022-23 NBA season, Anthony Edwards pledged to give up fried foods from his diet from Monday through Thursday, and completely give up those savory treats throughout basketball season.
So the question is, does Anthony Edwards still feast on Popeye’s chicken?
While Popeye’s chicken was a hot topic for the Timberwolves’ young shooting guard, as he has grown with the team, the number of times that Popeye’s Chicken has appeared at press conferences has dwindled. After all, Anthony Edwards is no longer the NBA’s boy wonder.
He has just celebrated his 22nd birthday, and he is currently leading Team USA in pursuit of the 2023 FIBA World Cup. Not just leading on paper, but literally taking over the game to lead the team in scoring. It seems that there are far more topics to discuss with Anthony Edwards in post-game press conferences than his favorite Popeye’s chicken menu selections or where he ranks their french fries.
Still, with a recent birthday celebration, you have to wonder if someone snuck a chicken sandwich to him as a special birthday treat. I’d bet that someone did, and it was one of his favorite presents. Well, so long as Karl-Anthony Towns did not catch wind of it.