ZION WILL DUNK home

After starting out in soccer and football, Zion Williamson fell in love with basketball at the age of five. At that point, he decided to put his energy into becoming the best basketball player he would be. Fast forward over a dozen years later and Williamson is being talked about as the next transcendent basketball player. At 6’7 and 260 pounds with an otherworldly vertical leap, what most notice about Zion on the basketball court is his combination of size and athleticism, and the dunks. Oh, Zion Will Dunk.

However, there have been more countless basketball players with the talent, athleticism, and size that never panned out. What makes Williamson special is his high basketball IQ and his ability to understand how best to maximize his skills, talent and abilities to perform not only on an individual level, but in ways that help his teams win.

That rare combination of brains and brawn has made Williamson the consensus #1 pick in the 2019 NBA Draft. Most see the dunks and highlights, but Zion is much more than your everyday dunker, and luckily NBA teams (and basketball heads) know that.

“I kind of hate being classified as a dunker,” Williamson told ESPN. “Coach (Mike Krzyzewski) wouldn’t have recruited me if I was just a dunker. But I guess people on the outside don’t understand that. I can’t play to impress other people. I’m playing to get better for myself and my teammates.”

And if Williamson was solely a human highlight reel and now much else, he certainly wouldn’t have won so many high school championships nor would he have been joined fellow transcendent hoopers Kevin Durant and Anthony Davis as the only Freshmen to ever be voted the consensus National College Player of the Year.

Nor would Zion have been voted AP player of the Year, ACC Player of the Year or named a consensus first-team All-American among many other awards and accomplishments during his one season at Duke.