PURDUE big man Zach Edey is ready to reach new heights in the NBA Draft.
But the 7-foot center was on track to have an elite baseball career before turning his talents to basketball.
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Growing up in Canada, Edey played ice hockey and baseball despite his abnormal size.
And his introduction to baseball at age 10 happened by accident.
“My parents took me to a random field one day and I thought we were going to have a picnic or something,” Edey remembered.
“Suddenly it was, ‘There’s a baseball tryout over there. You should go there.'”
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Edey was a foot taller than every other player on the field, which made him extremely intimidating both as a pitcher and as a batsman.
“From a shorter mound, it was so intimidating to get into the batter’s box,” teammate Sam Brown said.
“He was much stronger and threw harder than anyone at that time.”
His trainer Eric Stickney said MLB. with“It was definitely a safety concern when he played.
“You’d really worry about the safety of the other team’s pitcher if he managed to catch one and hit a line drive.”
By the age of 14, Edey had grown to 6 feet 2 inches and was capable of throwing the ball with extreme speed for a player his age.
“He was throwing 10, 19 mph faster than any other kid,” coach Jeff Wolburgh recalled.
Edey was so big that he could hold up to seven baseballs in one hand.
And he was considered one of Canada’s best baseball players.
After resisting basketball for a long time, Edey ended up playing the sport in high school.
He got into the game quickly and landed a spot at IMG Academy in Florida before securing a scholarship to Purdue.
Edey, who was the consensus National Player of the Year in 2024, is expected to be selected in the first round of the NBA Draft in Brooklyn on June 26-27.
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But his former baseball coaches believe Edey could have at least become a great college player if he had stuck with the sport.
“I have no doubt that he would have and could have gone to the United States to play baseball,” Stickney said.
“Yeah, he probably would have ended up getting a really good offer from a really good school to play college ball.
“And so at that point, it’s fate in your own hands to see what you can do at that level.”
Edey isn’t sure he could have become a professional player.
“It was something I really wanted when I was growing up. Something I dreamed about,” Edey said.
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“I kind of outgrew the sport. My shoulder was giving in a little bit. It wasn’t very realistic anymore.”
His former coaches believe he took the right direction by focusing on basketball.
“The competition to be an MLB pitcher is absolutely insane,” Stickney said.
“I think he can be an NBA center. It’s harder to say that about MLB.
“How many pitchers do you have in the minors that you don’t know if they’ll ever make it?
“There are so many levels too.”
This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
