Zion Williamson is a generational talent. The New Orleans Pelicans superstar is just 22 years old at the moment, but already, he's established himself as one of the top players in the NBA.

Basketball was always Zion's destiny. Even as a young boy, Williamson already had dreams of making it big in the NBA one day. Recently, the two-time All-Star revealed how the likes of Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird helped him on his journey early on:

“When I was younger and I first started playing the game of basketball, I asked my mom, ‘What players should I look up? Who should I watch?'” Zion said. “She told me, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Mike, in that order.

“So I watched Magic and I was like, ‘Man, I like his game.' (I) watched Larry, ‘That's a bad dude.' Then when it got to 23, it's hard to watch that and not say, ‘Man, I want to get to that level one day. I want to be able to do something like that when I get older. So I gotta go with those three.”

We have to give credit to Zion Williamson's mother for setting him on the right path and for giving him the proper inspiration to eventually become the player he is today. Thanks, mom!

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It's also interesting to learn that the Pelicans star actually took an old-school route in terms of learning the game. This young man was born in 2000, which means that he probably discovered basketball during the late 2000s. At that time, it was the likes of Kobe Bryant, Dirk Nowitzki, and Tim Duncan, to name a few, who were dominating the basketball scene. Even LeBron James was already winning MVP titles at that point in his career.

These are without a doubt some of the greatest players who have ever picked up a basketball, but for her part, mom decided to point her son in the direction of the old-school legends from the 1980s and the 1990s. The results speak for themselves.