Zion Williamson spent much of his freshman season at Duke as a projected top-five pick in the NBA Draft. The 19-year-old was all but presumed to leave college to play at the next level.
But, Williamson wasn’t nearly as set on that plan as initially thought.
The No. 1 overall pick appeared on the latest episode of The JJ Redick Podcast and discussed a variety of topics with his New Orleans Pelicans teammate, including his season at Duke and rehabbing from knee surgery.
As Williamson told Redick, the decision to declare for the 2019 NBA Draft came down to the last minute with the forward finally deciding to leave Duke and move on with his career.
It was at the deadline when you had to declare, you had to say, ‘Alright, what are you going to do? Declare or not?’ Me, I wanted to go back. Nobody ever believes me, they think I’m just saying that. But, no, I genuinely wanted to go back. I felt like the NBA wasn’t going anywhere. The money thing, that’s money; I don’t play this for money, I play because I genuinely love the game.
I just loved my experience at Duke that much where I wanted to stay. It was one of those situations where Coach K wasn’t going to let me come back because he wants me to do what’s best for the family. My teammates were saying, ‘That would be dope if you come back.’ At the same time, they were telling me I would be leaving too much. I didn’t work this long to get to that.
At the end of the day, it was kind of my mom. She said she was going to support whatever I do so I was like, ‘Alright, I’m going back.’ Then her and my stepdad talked about it and they were like, ‘You worked too hard to get to this moment; you’d feel bad if you left it.’ So I said, ‘I did work for this since I was like four or five so I’m going.’
Williamson had a highly productive year at Duke, earning National Player of the Year honors in the process. While Williamson was ultimately the top pick, he began the season off projected to be a top-10 selection with Duke teammate R.J. Barrett the consensus No. 1 pick.
After flashing his overall skillset, Williamson quickly surpassed his teammate and became the top player in college basketball. The notion that he nearly returned for another season is hard to fathom, as Redick pointed out in the clip.
Williamson had a strong preseason run with the Pelicans prior to suffering a knee injury that required surgery on Oct. 21. Williamson is said to be nearing a return with his long-awaited debut set to potentially come this month.
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