"I was just kind of frustrated," he said. "I was glad when the Kings took me."
As for Sacramento coach Garry St. Jean, he knew the man with the little frame had a big heart.
"They said he had a hand problem, an ankle problem, that he's not durable and that he's not big enough or strong enough," St. Jean said. "You can't measure his heart."
Edney's heart may almost be too big for his body, but what the 5-foot-10 point guard lacks in size, he makes up for in speed.
"We run the tape back on the plane, you know, after the game, and we say 'whoa!' He's got a great acceleration and he's got great body movement, great control, spin dribbles, cross-over, everything," the Kings coach said.
Everything except a starting job. Edney (10.2 ppg, 5.4 apg, 2.6 rpg) edges Bobby Hurley (3.9 ppg, 3.3 apg, 1.6 rpg) in points, assists, and minutes, but Hurley has gotten the nod every game, still struggling back from a near-fatal car crash that cut his rookie year short.
Kings production
Hurley (25 min. +) Edney (25 min. +)
ppg 99 103.1
rpg 42.7 44.7
apg 19 22.1
record 1-2 6-1
St. Jean says he favors Hurley's experience in the league over Edney's
first-year status. "I like the experience factor, I like the fact that you don't want to throw a rookie right in there," St. Jean said.
Edney would love to crack the starting lineup, but he realizes that the success of the Kings comes first.
"That's not in my head right now," Edney said. "We've got something going right now that's pretty good, and it's not important for me right now to start."
"It's not really to me who's starting the game," said Hurley. "It's who's finishing the game. That's a reflection of who the starter really is, who the coaches have confidence in down the stretch."
In the first 10 games, the guy down the stretch was the rookie. The Kings were 5-1 with Edney closing out the game, 2-2 without him.
"He's really shown he can spark things, games that we've been trailing by 10-12 points," Hurley said. "He's come in with (Sarunas) Marciulonis and some other second unit players and gotten us back into some games."
It's become an unexpected battle of Kings. With Spud Webb and Randy Brown gone this season, Hurley should have been the lone man on the point.
"It's not really competitive," Edney said. "We know that if we push each other, we're gonna make each other better, and we're gonna be better prepared when it's time to play in games against great guards."
Hurley's serious car accident hampered his development last season, but he feels he is now back to playing the game with the same emotion he showed while at Duke.
"I wasn't myself last season," Hurley said. "This year I feel that I am playing like my old self."
The fire is back, but Bobby Hurley has a whole new outlook on his career. It's no longer about starting, or statistics or minutes. It's about getting back to the level of excellence that made Hurley the seventh pick in the '93 draft.
"I don't know if it's ever gonna get there, but each day, I step out on the court, I want to keep improving," Hurley said.
"He's bulked up in his upper body, he's lifting weights, he's trying to get stronger," said teammate Mitch Richmond (20.2 ppg, 3.2 rpg, 2.5 apg).
But in the meantime, the question remains; will Tyus Edney start this year?
"Maybe," says St. Jean with a chuckle.
With the Kings' quick start in the Pacific Division, there has been plenty of chuckling throughout California's capital city.