The Legend of Sion – The New York Times

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The legend of Zion Williamson grows with every game nowadays, with every new thunderclap and every new feat of elevation. This has been the case for a number of years now, with Williamson, star performer in a growing collection of viral clips showing a player with the skills to surpass almost everyone, to catch almost anything, to challenge almost everyone. Even his lowest moments – the sneakers that could not hold him back, the injured knee that cost him five games – somehow turned into highlights. But Williamson, a 18-year-old freshman from Duke, has been creating memorable moments for years. A group of New York Times reporters found some of the people present for some of them, asking them questions about the most memorable memories.

Forgive Tom Konchalski.

The editor of High School Basketball Illustrated first observed Zion Williamson in person at Elite 24, a prestigious showcase of the country's best preparation prospects on August 20, 2016. The Pier's field 2, at Brooklyn Bridge Park, was the theater and Williamson was 10 for 10 on the field, scored 23 points and shared the honors of the most valuable players. Konchalski was impressed.

For Konchalski, he had accumulated an inventory of reports ranging from Michael Jordan to LeBron James in five decades. Williamson, who had just turned 16, seemed to be an inside technician, a comfortable player who was turning against his defender. go to the rim for sober finishes. Due to Williamson's body type, Konchalski considered him a southpaw, Jamal Mashburn, a reference to the very mighty Bronx who played 11 seasons in the NB.

When Konchalski sat in front of his typewriter after the Elite 24 to describe Williamson's effort, he wrote that "Six-foot-five junior Zion Williamson, the mistress of silent domination, was bringing a little bit of 'fresh air".

Looking back, Konchalski says now, he's all wrong.

"I am wiping large amounts of eggs on my face," he said. Williamson, he knows, "is anything but calm."

The first time LeBron James went to watch Zion Williamson, they did not let him in.

It was July 2017, and James, who was once a transcendent teenage talent, went to see Williamson, the next big thing, in Las Vegas. Williamson's team, South Carolina Supreme, played the role of Big Baller Brand, featuring LaMelo Ball, a brother of Lakers guard Lonzo Ball. According to the standards of basketball for young people in the summer, it was an event not to be missed.

James, of course, was not the only one interested in this confluence of basketball dust. N.B.A. Players Damian Lillard, Andrew Wiggins, Jamal Murray and Thon Maker were already at the gym when James arrived, adding enthusiasm to a crowd of more than 4,000 who were threatening to overwhelm a court set up to contain less. half.

Even during warm-ups, the excitement was palpable. The audience screamed and howled when Williamson threw high balls into the air and dipped them; Many viewers held mobile phones, the best to share video clips of a scene that was quickly called the "the craziest A.A.U. game never. "

But James has never seen anything like it. While the supporters were standing at most a dozen times, almost overflowing the field, the group and his group learned that just letting him into the gym was a security risk. It seems that the mere presence of a teenager has dismissed the greatest star of basketball. James was told he could not enter.

"We closed it," an Adidas marketing manager said CBS Sports at the time. "The corners were 500 deep. That's where it went crazy.

It will take James a year and a half to see Williamson play in person. In February, he took a 35-minute flight between Philadelphia and Charlottesville, Va., And saw court side Williamson play for Duke to score 18 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists in a win over Virginia. James said that Williamson's athletics was "ridiculous".

Bishop Richardson averaged about three alley-oop assists Williamson in every game when their team, Spartanburg (S.C.) Day School, arrives at Columbia's Ben Lippen School, S.C. for part of Williamson's first year.

Williamson had a lot of dunk at the time, and he had recorded at least two slams in the first period that had rocked the gym. "I remember it very well," said Williamson last week. "Their student section was really in the game, talking a lot."

The real highlight, however, was yet to come. With 39 points ahead of Spartanburg, Richardson, a lean guard who had been playing football since the 8th year, found himself running easily on the right-hand line when he saw Williamson close so threatening from the other side of the field. He tried another lob; he knew that the pass did not have to be perfect.

"If you throw it anywhere near the ledge," said Richardson, "he was going to get it."

On this occasion, Richardson's draw came well below the rim. But that allowed Williamson to do something outrageous: he climbed into the air, reached out with both hands to grab the incoming pass at about shoulder height, and – still on the train to climb, high enough to look inside the edge that he was about to squeeze – used a circular circular motion to bring the ball back to the waist, then back up on the left side of the front body to push it into the basket with the left hand.

The crowd broke.

"I remember thinking," Holy cow, I've never seen anyone do anything like that, let alone be part of it, "said Richardson. "People were falling from the stands."

In just a few hours, the dunk was featured on the light food rolls and national sports broadcasts, but Richardson did not see the reply again until the next day, when he and his teammates threw a shot at Stealthy eye in a study room.

"I'd like to be able to take credit for it," said Richardson, "but it was completely accidental."

The vertical jump is measured using a simple object: a large pole with a series of long metal fingers that project horizontally above each other – narrow wings stacked upward, upward, at intervals constant. It may seem lo-fi, but it is also infallible: your vertical reach during the jump is the tallest metal flange you are able to move away from its defined position. Subtract the standing vertical range from this number and you will get a vertical jump from the player.

When Duke tested his players one day last summer, Zion Williamson's vertical jump was measured at 46 inches. But for Duke's teammates and staff members present, simple numbers do not do justice right now.

"We were all in shock," said Alex O'Connell, second-year guard.

Williamson, who went last, was out of the standings. On his first attempt he carelessly dismissed the highest measure. A staff member adjusted the pole to its highest setting and reset the tabs, and Williamson repeated the feat. They put weights under the device to lift it a few inches higher in the air. Williamson beat the highest measures again.

"It was something we did not see much, especially with a guy built like him flying in the air," said forward Javin DeLaurier. "It's a sight to behold."

Nolan Smith, assistant coach who played for four years at Duke and several others in N.B.A. and Europe, said that he had never seen anything like it. Cam Reddish, another freshman from the Blue Devils, said he missed the game; he said that he was in another part of the building when Williamson tested the test himself.

"I just learned that he broke the record," Reddish said. "The things of Zion."

At first, Jay Williams, the Duke's ex-hero, followed Williamson's hype in the same way as everyone else: low-quality video clips shot in high school gyms and posted on the Internet. Williamson's high pieces quickly became "the eighth wonder of the world," said Williams.

Then he saw it in person.

"I've never seen a player casually make a 360 in a game," said Williams, after seeing Williamson doing it precisely during a game against Clemson this season. "Even when you saw Vince doing it in college," he said, referring to Vince Carter, who was playing at the University of North Carolina, "he needed a lot of energy to exercise this type of energy. My man did it by chance in the game. He did a 360 as I would do a lay-up. "

Williams said that games like this one were the reason why comparing Williamson to other basketball players was a mistake.

"For me, I was watching a football player who had the finesse of basketball ability," he said. "I have never seen this before. I played against Julius Peppers at the university. I remember him as the only guy against whom Carlos Boozer was intimidated, because he could not just move him. I remember thinking for the first time, "Oh, I was watching Julius Peppers but through a basketball goal. What? What? "Julius was nimble, but I'm talking about the carcass of the body. That reminded me of a linebacker or a close end. Just different. "

By Joe Drapé and Marc Tracy

Spike Lee was at his seat and Barack Obama was installed in his turn, at the end of the end of the Duke's bench. But in front of Luke Maye, in North Carolina, in the space where Zion Williamson had been a moment earlier, there was suddenly … nothing.

"I did not hear anything, man," Maye said Thursday.

What everyone understands quickly is that the story has changed quickly: it's a much stranger game: the Duke sneakers and N ° 8 (North Carolina) are in a much more strange category: Williamson's Nike sneakers broke when he kicked the line. He was down. North Carolina was racing on the track. And everyone was asking: What just happened?

Maye, at that time, had the best place in the house.

"I just took the ball," he said, "and I just started."

At first the Blue Devils were just as confused. The first thing Javin DeLaurier saw from Duke on his bench was the boot of Williamson's left foot, or what was left of it, anyway: his sole flapped freely, like a banner in the wind.

For DeLaurier, that counted as good news.

"I thought," Oh, no, it's just his shoe, "he said," there was a sigh of relief. "

After all, he had already seen it before. He had already blown a shoe. He had seen Williamson do it too. "Sion is a great human being who moves very fast and changes direction," said DeLaurier. "It happens."

"I consider it's my fault," says De'Andre Hunter now.

He's not wrong. At the end of a game in Virginia in February, Cavaliers goaltender Kyle Guy sent the ball across the ball to teammate De'Andre Hunter, who waited at the 3-point line at the back of the corner and without Duke player within 15 feet of him. Williamson was on the left side of the field and played his usual ardent and active defense. Hunter, in the right corner, took his time to restart the 3-point attempt.

Williamson, however, had already filled the gap. Siding across the field with five quick steps, he took off at about six feet as Hunter landed. "I consider it's my fault," Hunter said. "It took me too long to prepare and release the shot. But he has come a long way. "

In fact, Williamson jumped so high and stretched so vertically that his right hand was well above the height of the 10-foot rim when he hit Hunter's shot cleanly in the stands.

"He just came out of nowhere," said Hunter.

The worst news, at least for Hunter, is that the clip was broadcast in ESPN's SportsCenter and other flagship shows. It is now one of the essential elements of Williamson's filmography on YouTube.

"I did not know it was going to be such a big deal," Hunter said recently.

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