A shoe breaks
UNC came to Cameron Indoor Stadium Wednesday, and the rest of the world joined too.
Students spent weeks in tents to get in. ESPN strung cameras inside the gym and built a TV set outside of it. Celebrities — from Duke’s favorite rapper Young Dolph to President Barack Obama, filled the stands.
And at the center of it all: a shoe.
Megastar freshman Zion Williamson took the ball on a handoff 28 seconds into the game. From outside the three point line on the left side of the hoop, he cut across the court. One slow dribble. A faster one. The big man — who would be the second heaviest player in the NBA if he were in it — gained momentum. He got to the free throw line with his third dribble. His back faced the basket. He planted his left foot to turn.
Williamson’s full weight — 285 pounds — came down on that planted foot with the inertia of a semi truck on the interstate. The pitiable left Paul George 2.5 shoe wrapped around his foot caught that weight.
33 seconds into the game, Williamson’s foot burst through the white and blue shoe.
Williamson went down.
Duke’s historically feared student section, filled with eager anticipation and painted faces, went silent as their team’s best player writhed in pain.
“This place got quite awfully quickly,” said commentator Tim Brando.
Non-student fans who secured tickets reselling at an average of $3,296 matched the student section’s shattered energy.
“His shoe broke,” mouthed President Obama.
Minutes later, as Duke trailed in the first half, vexed-but-hopeful students chanted “Yes we can.”
The UNC basketball team responded: “No, you can’t.”
The Tar Heels thumped the Blue Devils, beating the home sans star 88 to 72.
Fallout
Williamson would limp off the court on his own volition, linger on the bench for a minute while a trainer attended to him, and hobble to the locker room trailed by medical staff.
The broken shoe, a long tear along its left side, would be left below Duke’s bench.
Moments later, assistant coach Nolan Smith would chase after Williamson and come back from the locker room to deliver the bad news — injured, out for the game — to head coach Mike Krzyzewski and assistant coach Jon Scheyer.
The number one ranked Blue Devils would go down 10 points at halftime. Four minutes into the second period, that deficit would grow to 22 points.
Fans wealthy enough to buy tickets would trickle out in the waning minutes of a jarringly unexciting game.
Duke students would dream of benches unburnt as UNC students flooded the intersection of Franklin St. and Columbia by the thousands.
Nike’s stock would open 1.70 percent down, the equivalent of about $1.47 billion in lost value.
Twitter would quickly lose its collective mind, becoming an electronic hot-take soup filled with calls for Williamson to forego finishing the season, prayers for recovery from average Joes and the likes of Obama and Lebron, and memes targeted at Nike and Duke fans.
NBA star Paul George would be asked why his signature shoe split open.
Mike DeGeorge, Duke Men’s Basketball Director of Information, would announce Williamson is day-to-day with a right knee sprain.
But before all of that, Williamson sat on the floor, hunched over and clutching his leg, with a broken shoe on his left foot.
