Before taking on the New Orleans Pelicans on Wednesday, San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich opened up about the importance of Pels rookie Zion Williamson to the game.
“I'm glad he's back. A talent like that, he's a great guy on top of it all, the whole world needs to see him. Obviously it's good for the Pelicans, but it's good for basketball. He's quite a package, both as a player and as a person,” Popovich said of the Pelicans' prized asset, per Brad Turner of the Los Angeles Times.
Indeed, amidst claims of television ratings going down for the season and many fans and pundits slandering the NBA for its lack of engaging games, the debut of one of the greatest players in college basketball history is sure to be of interest to almost every NBA fan – from the most casual followers to the deepest die-hards.
Beyond sweeping almost every conceivable end-of-season award in his lone season at Duke University, Williamson also produced some truly eye-popping numbers in college: 22.6 points, 8.9 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 2.1 steals and 1.8 blocks per game.
In his only season in college, Zion broke the all-time record for Player Efficiency Rating with a truly remarkable 40.8 in that metric. Beyond that, he shot an astonishing 68 percent from the field on a high 28.6 percent usage rate.
Because Zion Williamson was mostly ramming home gargantuan dunks with reckless abandon, he also finished his only collegiate season with a ridiculous 70.2 true shooting percentage and an even higher 70.8 effective field goal percentage.
It will likely be some time before fans see a player with numbers that incredible in college, so let’s hope he Pelicans rook brings that same kind of impact to the Pelicans and the NBA – as Coach Pop believes he will.
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