Zion Williamson, who starred for Duke in 2018-19, his lone season in college basketball, smiles before the NBA draft Thursday night in New York. Williamson, as expected, was taken No. 1 overall by the New Orleans Pelicans.NEW YORK – Zion Williamson plays basketball with force and ferocity, a Hulk in hightops who looks as though he would never show a soft side.
Draft night proved otherwise.
Williamson was the No. 1 pick of the New Orleans Pelicans – a surprise to nobody who watched him as a freshman this past season at Duke. He couldn’t hide his emotions later, though, despite the fact he along with everyone else knew what would happen Thursday to start the NBA draft.
“Because I love the game of basketball,” he said. “You can hear people say that it was likely I was going to go No. 1. But I guess you don’t know until you actually go through it. Hearing my name called, and I was able to make it on stage without a tear, shake the commissioner’s hand, but in the interview my mom was standing beside me and my emotions just took over.”
There might be tears of joy in New Orleans, too, after the Pelicans were able to get the 6-foot-7, 285-pound powerhouse who is considered one of the league’s most exciting prospects in years. He compiled a career worth of highlights in just one college season, becoming the third freshman to be named men’s college basketball player of the year by The Associated Press.