Zion Williamson
Over the past Season of College Basketball, one team has been dominating all the competition. And on that team, one player that has risen above the rest and proved himself as a super athlete deserving of the title.
Even as an 18-year-old freshman, Zion Williamson represented everything that you would want to see in a future first-round draft pick prospect. Many people argue that Zion should not have to play at the college level and should be able to go to the NBA. Sport-Reference estimates that at least 8 of dukes 32 wins were in no small part, due to Zion Williamson. But his basketball success has not come without controversy. This is the success story of Zion Williamson.
Zion was born on July 6, 2000, in Salisbury South Carolina. He was born into an athletic household. His mother was a college track star at Livingston College and his stepdad played basketball for Clemson in college.
When Zion was young, he started playing soccer and football. He eventually set his sights on becoming a Basketball star. He would wake up early in the mornings to train with his mom and stepdad.
Zion made the Middle school and eventually High school basketball teams with ease. He went to middle school at Johnakin Middle School in South Carolina. When he finished middle school, he transferred to a Private school called Spartanburg Day School, where he started to gain publicity for his skills. he was doing amazing things on the court, playing in normal season games, and tournaments. He was winning awards left and right. Videos mashing together his best plays and highlights started to gain traction online and the world would soon know his name. He averaged over 36 points his senior season.
During his High School career, Zion was given many scholarship opportunities from lots of amazing college basketball programs. He eventually decided to commit to Duke as they had an amazing coach and an amazing basketball program. But this was where the first of many, and the main controversy of his career. See, the NBA requires players to play at least one year of college basketball before entering the draft. But Why? If he was Good enough to play at the NBA level, Why should he be forced to stay in the NCAA?
Zions first season with Duke was a roller coaster ride of emotions. He was playing great. he was scoring huge numbers and everyone expected him to get drafted straight out of freshman year. But all of a sudden, in February of 2019, Zion fell to the court out of the blue, clutching his leg to his chest. Upon further inspection, people realized that his shoes had blown out.
The glues holding the sole of the shoe to rubber platform of the shoe had snapped and had caused the whole shoe to fall apart. Zion’s left leg came down hard during the fall causing a minor sprang to his left leg. Zion was wearing a pair of Nike Paul George 2.5s Made by Nike. Since the fall was during a big game and was being broadcasted to millions of homes, Nike felt the backlash of this event immediately as their stock plummeted 1.05% to $83.95 per share. Not to mention all the bad press. People were furious that the poor quality of their shoes almost compromised the playing ability of one of the NBA’s best future prospects.
Towards the beginning of his NCAA career, fans of basketball all over the country argued over the legitimacy and necessity of requiring players to play at least 1 year in the NCAA before being allowed into the NBA. while on one hand, it allows players with little to no experience, to have the experience of playing high-intensity games in front of thousands of fans, it also means that players that are decidedly better than the rest, such as Zion Williamson to have to take a year of time he could have potentially spent playing in the NBA and getting paid to do it, playing for a college team in the NCAA and not making any money while doing it.
Many people also argue that, if someones good enough to play in the NBA coming straight out of High School, why not let them. It's not going to hurt the NBA in any way and in fact, it might make them even more money as fans of the player will tune in to more games to see their favorite player play! The player gets to play in the league he wants and the NBA has another Name they can use to market and sell more tickets.
The only issue he’s had with Duke was towards the end of march madness. Going into the average basketball superfans favorite month, March, Many people, and sports analysts predicted Zion Williamson to lead Duke to an easy championship win in the march madness bracket.
But as soon as the bracket started it was apparent that things were not going to go as smoothly as everyone had thought. Duke barely won the first game, coming out on top of unc by 1 point. The next 2 games went ok as Duke came out on top winning by 10 and 22 points respectively. but then during the fourth game, things started to heat up again as duke skimmed by UCF by 1 point and then beat Virginia Tech by 2 points. but then everything came to a screeching halt when Duke lost to Michigan State in the elite eight.
Now, where Zion's career will go next, I cannot say. But it is clear that if he continues to put in the work and grind like he is now, he could someday become one of the greats. among the likes of Micheal Jordan and Lebron James. But wherever he goes and whatever he chooses for himself, one thing’s for certain. He will have hundreds of thousands of fans behind his back, chanting his name.
