Before Zion Williamson would be drafted first overall at the 2019 NBA Draft by the New Orleans
Pelicans
Before Zion Williamson would steal a page from Kevin Durant’s book, getting choked
up talking about his Mom and the sacrifices she made for him
Before Zion Williamson would be compared to NBA superstars and legends such as Blake Griffin,
Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, and of course.
Before Zion Williamson would be projected to sign a rookie contract that would pay him
a total of 45 million bucks, assuming the Pelicans include the 2 year option to his
rookie deal.
Before Zion would be hit with a $100 Million dollar law suit, just a day before being drafted
first overall.
Zion Williamson is expected to make an immediate impact when he hits the hardwood for the start
of the 2019-2020 season with the young New Orleans Pelicans.
Teaming up with the likes of Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram and Josh Hart, Zion is expected to
take the league by storm.
After being compared to one of the greatest to ever play the game of basketball, there
is definitely excitement surrounding the NBA world, and I’m sure, the Pelican’s locker
room.
The 6 foot 7 285 baller would start his sports career playing soccer and Quarterback in football,
before eventually realizing he was made for the NBA.
I mean, just look at the guy, he’s an absolute tank.
As previously mentioned Zion’s drawn a lot of comparison to Lebron James, even rocking
the same all white suit look on draft night.
But it’s not like the success of Zion Williamson is a fluke.
He would start training to become an NBA star at the age of 5 years old, waking up at 5
AM when he was just 9 years old to work on his shooting and conditioning.
Jeez, I woke up at 7 this morning and it was hard to turn on my coffee machine.
We’re gonna cover that, Zion’s come up, not me making coffee, and everything you need
to know about the NBA’s next potential phenom, Zion Williamson, here for you on before they
were famous.
How’s it going on guys?
Jarred Bronstein here and welcome back to Before They Were Famous.
In my last video we talked about Bol Bol, who actually got drafted much lower than expected
with the 44th pick.
Now we did a Before They Were Famous on Zion not too long ago, but since then a ton of
stuff has gone down so we wanted to keep you guys updated.
Be sure to keep sending in your requests in the comments down below, and today’s trivia
question is which Canadian Rapper got a custom high school Zion Jersey made Zion was still
in High School?
It’s standard for celebs to wear NBA players jerseys from their high school days, but this
guy had someone wearing his jersey while he was still in high school and just 16 years
old.
Damn.
Find out who it we’re talking bout at the end of the video.
But let’s get into it.
Zion Lateef Williamson was born on July 6th, 2000 in Salisbury North Carolina.
Zion’s mother Sharonda Sampson was a college track star at Livingstone College, who could
reportedly jump 6 feet high, and Zion’s biological dad, Lateef Williamson who’s
6’5, played college football for North Carolina State before transferring to Livingstone College.
That’s where his two parents would meet and fall in love, eventually giving birth
to Zion.
When Zion was 2 his family would relocate to Florence, South Carolina, but at the age
of 5 Late and Sharonda would get a divorce.
Aside from the genes he clearly inherited from his athletic biological parents, Zion’s
stepdad, Lee Anderson, also played college basketball at Clemson, so from a young age
it seems Zion was destined to be an incredible athlete.
At 9 years old Zion would get up at 5 am to train for the game he would eventually dominate.
Being coached by his mother, Zion would player for the Sumter Falcons in the AAU league,
playing opponents that were as much as 4 years older than he was.
And while in eighth grade, Zion was standing at 5’9, which is still tall for a 14 year
old.
I’m 5’9 and I’m 25.
Anyway, due to his height, he can be seen as the shorter one in his early team photos.
Zion would attend the Spartanburg Day school from his kindergarten years all the way to
this senior year in high school.
Before Zion would start high school, his family would move to Spartanburg due to basketball
related reasons.
In his first year of high school ball for the Spartangburg Griffins, Zion who would
grow to 6’3 would average 24.4 points, 9.4 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 3.3 steals and 3 blocks
per game, earning himself All state and all regional hours.
This wouldn’t come easy though, as Zion would spend his summer days heading into grade
9 in the gym working on his skills and developing the ability to dunk.
Like this.
He would lead his team to the state championship but would lose and head into the summer of
2015 Zion would get his first offer from Wofford.
By grade 10, he’d be standing at 6’6, and it wouldn’t be long before the world
would know who Zion Williamson was.
Featured in the popular basketball publication Slam Magazine and being considered one of
the best high school players in the world, Zion Williamson was destined for greatness.
In his sophomore years, Zion would help Spartanburg Day win their first SCISA I-2A Region title
in program history, averaging 28.3 points, 10.4 rebounds, 3.9 blocks, 2.7 steals and
2.5 assists
Heading into his Junior year, Zion would have offers from closer to 20 colleges, c including,
Clemson, Wofford, USC Upstate, College of Charleston, Florida, Georgia, Virginia, Connecticut,
Miami, Mississippi State, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, N.C.
State, LSU and Texas A&M.
It wouldn’t be long before North Carolina and Kentucky would offer him scholarships
as well.
And there was good reason for the offers, the kid just kept getting better.
In his Junior season Zion would average 36.8 points, 13 rebounds, 3 steals, and 2.5 blocks
per game.
In November of 2016, Steph Curry would retweet a trending video of Zion playing high school
ball, which to 16 year old Zion, was pretty cool.
And Steph seems to have respect for Zion as well.
Williamson would help his school During his senior years of high school ball, Zion averaged
36.4 points, 11.4 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game, helping Spartanburg win their third
consecutive SCISA Region I-2A Championship, putting up 38 points against Trinity Collegiate
School.
Williamson would also play in the 2018 Mcdonald’s All American Game, scoring just 8 points in
17 minutes before a thumb injury would keep him out of the rest of the game.
He would also be forced to miss the Jordan Brand Classic and Nike Hoop Summit the following
month because of the same injury.
But by this point, he would have a total of offers including a offer from LSU’s tight
ends coach to play football.
Zion had absolutely no interest in that.
Although many experts thought he would end up at Clemson.
Turns out they were wrong.
In total, Zion would have 28 offers from colleges all across the US but would commit to Duke
on January 20th, 2018 in a live telecast on ESPN.
Zion would play one year at Duke, averaging 22.6 points, 8.9 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.8
blocks, and 2.1 steals per game.
Zion and fellow teammate RJ Barret, who got drafted 3rd overall to the Knicks, would help
lead Duke to the state championship game where Zion would win Tournament MVP honors, becoming
the sixth freshman to do so.
He averaged 27 points and 10 rebounds while making 33 of 43 shots.
During the insanely popular 2019 NCAA Tournament, CBS, the official partner of the tournament
devoted a camera specifically for Williamson called the “Zion Cam”, which would film
only Zion throughout Duke’s games.
It was a smart move because they captured plays like this.
Duke would lose in the Elite 8 to Michigan State but Zion would shoot 68 percent from
the field, leading the ACC and ranking second in the NCAA division 1.
It was also the highest field goal percentage ever by a freshman.
He also joined some nice company, being the third freshman to record 500 points, 50 steals
and 50 blocked shots in a season.
The other two: Anthony Davis and Kevin Durant.
He also joins Davis as just the second freshman to win the Naismith award and go first overall.
We just did a Before They Were Famous video on AD so check it out after this one.
On April 15th, 2019 Williamson would declare for the 2019 NBA draft.
After the Pelicans would win the lottery, there were rumours that Zion would potentially
return to Duke for a second season.
Zion’s step father, Lee Anderson said they’re excited about Zion possibly playing in New
Orleans and shot down rumours of a potential return saying “it’s not something they
even considered.”
And as you guys now know, Zion Williamson was the first overall pick of the 2019 NBA
draft, going to the New Orleans Pelicans.
But just a day before Zion would hear his name called, he was hit with a 100 million
dollar law suit.
Prime Sports Marketing LLC and company president Gina Ford filed a lawsuit Wednesday in a Florida
court, accusing Williamson and the agency now representing him of breach of contract.
Williamson signed with Prime Sports in April before hiring a player agent, but filed a
lawsuit himself to terminate the 5 year contract after he decided to move to Creative Artists
Agency in May.
Prime Sports is seeking $100 million in punitive damages against Williams, CAA, and two of
CAA’s employees.
In a statement to The Associated Press on Wednesday night, Ford's attorneys said she
"has worked tremendously hard to build Prime Sports Marketing into a competitive marketing
and branding consulting firm while raising a family.
She's deeply saddened and disappointed that what was once a promising business with Mr.
Williamson has now resorted to legal action.”
Now because this lawsuit just came out literally 2 days ago, we don’t know how its going
to pan out.
Maybe they’ll settle?
Or maybe it goes to court.
Who knows, what I do know, is Zion Williamson is going to be an absolute animal in the NBA
for years to come.
He’s not expected to be the saviour of the Pelicans, who only reached the playoffs twice
in the past 6 seasons.
But he’ll definitely help a team with such a young core including Josh Hart, Brandon
Ingram and Lonzo Ball, all newly acquired in the trade for Anthony Davis.
As always I want to hear from you guys, so let me know your thoughts on Zion Williamson
and how you think he’ll do with the new, young and exciting New Orleans Pelicans.
Before we wrap this up, I asked you guys which Canadian Rapper got a custom high school Zion
Jersey made.
Well it was none other than Toronto’s very own Drake.
But that’s it for me guys, My name is Jarred Bronstein.
If you haven't Subscribed to our channel be sure to do that right now.
Also check out some of our other videos we've done on other up and coming NBA stars like
Bol Bol.
You can find me on social media @bronst7.
I'll see you guys in another video.