DURHAM, N.C. – Pick a viral clip of Duke's Zion Williamson. The 360-degree slam vs. Clemson with his face eye-level with the rim; hitting his head on the backboard trying to block a shot vs. Princeton; the high-flying, two-handed alley-oop vs. Eastern Michigan; the one-handed slam with a Virginia defender hacking his dunking arm preceded by a nifty crossover dribble between defenders.
The Legend of Zion grows with each game.
What will he do next? Tune in to see.
"He's a really unusually great player," Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski told USA TODAY Sports, running out of superlatives to describe Williamson's game.
The No. 2 Blue Devils, who have dropped just two games, including Williamson and a group of talented freshmen have become appointment viewing. And their next game should be a doozy: a rematch with No. 3 Virginia, a team they handed its only loss, last month in Cameron Indoor Stadium. (Saturday, 6 p.m. ET, ESPN)
Williamson, with his rare combination of size, strength, speed and skill packed into a 6-foot-7, 285-pound frame, has captured the attention of college basketball and captivated NBA executives.
"There’s never been a player like him to play basketball,” ESPN analyst Jay Bilas told USA TODAY Sports. “Not to say he’s the best player I’ve ever seen, but I’ve never seen anyone like him, I know that. All you have to do is watch him to know that this guy is different.”
Bilas, who played for Duke, might be biased. But he’s not wrong. Williamson is the size of a nose tackle with a linebacker’s physique combined with a defensive end’s speed. LeBron James plus J.J. Watt equals Zion Williamson, who does things with the basketball that seem incongruent to his size.
His performances reverberate throughout college basketball and the shock waves are felt in the NBA, where #tryinforzion is the hashtag for teams at the bottom of the standings.
The 19-2 Blue Devils start four freshmen when healthy: Williamson, R.J. Barrett, Cam Reddish and Tre Jones.
All four could get selected in the first round of the June draft, and Williamson and Barrett are 1-2 in most mock drafts. If that scouting holds, it would make them the first pair from the same school drafted 1-2 since Kentucky’s Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist in 2012.
Williamson, Barrett and Reddish are projected to go top 10, which would make them just the second trio from the same school to go in the first 10 selections since 1966. They could go 1-2-3, which has never happened for three players from the same school.
Two NBA executives from the same team sat in the stands watching Duke play an early-season game. They represented a team trying to make the playoffs this season, but one executive looked at his colleague after watching Williamson, Barrett and Reddish and wondered if they were doing the right thing by winning games. Maybe tanking to get one of those players would be the better long-term play.
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