Zion Williamson: 'I'm Going To Shock The World'

You can count the number of NBA players who’ve been hyped as heavily as Zion Williamson on one hand. But he doesn’t care, nor is he putting much thought into it. As the 2019 NBA draft draws near, the high-flying 18-year-old is only focused on one thing: being unabashedly himself.

- Franklyn Calle

IT’S THE LAST Sunday of April, and with the 2019 NBA Draft less than eight weeks away, the League has recently announced the 233 early entry candidates who have thrown their names into the hat hoping to hear them called at Barclays Center in June.

With the NBA draft early entry deadline in the rearview mirror, most hopefuls who submitted their paperwork to the League office have by now signed with an agent and have begun their pre-draft training regimen. The process usually involves spending the two months leading up to the draft at expansive training facilities provided by their respective agents, preparing for the looming combine and individual team workouts in the coming weeks.

Yet on this warm spring day, the projected No. 1 pick in this year’s draft, the one who many consider the most highly touted prospect in the past decade, is actually still on a college campus preparing for finals week.

Yes, Zion Williamson is still on campus heading into May, and tomorrow he has a PowerPoint presentation as part of a group project in his “Sexual Pleasures of the Modern World” class. The topic is sex work and Zion and his classmates have spent the past couple of months researching the subject in the lead-up to the class presentation.

“It’s only about six groups. PowerPoint, videos, a lot. There is no small part. You’re going to have to talk a lot,” says the 6-7 forward.

Seeing the undisputed No. 1 pick in the upcoming draft still walking around campus, talking about his upcoming class presentations while everyone on the internet attempts to project just how much the 18-year-old could potentially earn in endorsement deals is not really what you’d expect.