Zion Williamson has become one of the most talked about young men in the USA after being picked first by the New Orleans Pelicans in the NBA draft, at just 19 years of age. There has been talk of an incredibly talented young man called Zion for many years and it was only natural that he would head to Duke in order to play under master coach Mike Kryzewski. Williamson is not the first hot piece of talent to come out of Duke and through the years they have provided the NBA with players such as Carlos Boozer, Luol Deng, Grant Hill, Kyrie Irving and Elton Brand to name just a few. We caught up with Carter Boyle Duke University student to find out why Duke basketball continues to produce.
Sports Above Everything
There is a real culture of sports at Duke university, especially in relation to the basketball team and for a long time when the Blue Devils are playing, everything at the university stops to support their team. Duke doesn’t have a reputation as a party university, there is a very small and minor Greek scene here, but what they do very well is support their basketball team.
Talent
Carter believes that the reason as to why the university is able to consistently bring in so much young talent is partly because they are always adept at hiring the best coaches, and partly because of what he calls the ‘cycle of success’. If you are a young basketball starlet looking for a university to go to, you will look at the wealth of talent which Duke has produced over the years and this will be greatly encouraging. This is why we have more and more talent coming through, because they want to follow in the footsteps of those who have gone before.
How Good Is Zion?
The students at Duke all knew that they had something special on their hands before Zion had even enrolled in his classes. As a high school player he had made huge waves and all of the scouts knew that this kid was going to be something special. There was quite a battle between the colleges for Zion, and the day that he decided to choose Duke, the word spread around the campus like wildfire. When Zion was about to play his first game for the university there was a he attendance and everyone in the college was talking about it, Carter says that this didn’t last too long because by the third game they saw, they knew that he was going to be heading straight to the big time.
Pundits, analysts and scouts have all tipped Zion to go on to become one of the greatest that has ever played the game if he reaches the potential that everyone knows he has. Naturally this will be determined by injuries, or lack thereof, and the career choices that he makes, if those things fall inline then he will become one of the best of all time.
