In Duke’s 81-71 win over Virginia on Saturday, Zion Williamson had once again used his athletic ability to create a jaw-dropping highlight that still can’t fully be explained over 12 hours later. With 4:40 remaining in the game, Virginia’s Jay Huff found a wide open De’Andre Hunter in the corner for a three. As Hunter prepared to shoot, Williamson to sprinted over from the opposite side of the restricted area all the way to near where the Cavalier was standing to smash his shot attempt into the crowd.
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Some have argued that the play is actually not as impressive as it seems given that Hunter did take his sweet time getting ready for the shot like he was James Harden after dropping Wesley Johnson. But it’s not as if Williamson was able to get right in front of him during that time span. All of the replays clearly show the freshman phenom preparing for his leap from a rather impressive distance.
Virginia coach Tony Bennett was understandably humbled after the loss and praised Williamson for completing what’s arguably one of the most athletic blocks in the sport’s history.
“There are probably two people in the world that can make that play, and they were both in the gym,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said, alluding to the fact that Williamson’s performance came while LeBron James was courtside with Lakers teammate Rajon Rondo and others from his management team at Klutch Sports.
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It’s not like Williamson did this knowing LeBron was in the arena, he just did it because he could and had to. When ESPN’s Myron Medcalf asked the freshman about the player’s presence, he simply responded that he didn’t see him. That’s probably a good thing. If Williamson had known LeBron was there, he might have been too nervous to try and pull off something like that impressive and we would have had to settle for a run-of-the-mill tomahawk dunk to talk about instead.
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