4:05 pm | June 20, 2019 | Go to Source | Author:
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Tim BontempsESPN
NEW YORK — Welcome to the NBA, Zion Williamson.
The superstar forward out of Duke was selected No. 1 overall by the Pelicans in Thursday night’s NBA draft at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, confirming what had been inevitable once New Orleans won the draft lottery last month.
Williamson, a generational talent because of his combination of size, strength, speed and skill, was the dominant force in college basketball last season. As a freshman, he averaged 22.6 points, 8.9 rebounds, 2.1 steals and 1.8 blocks, all while shooting 68% from the field as he wowed with one spectacular highlight play after another en route to being named the Wooden Award winner as the nation’s top player.
“I just want to be in the NBA,” Williamson said Wednesday. “I didn’t have a favorite team growing up. Just to be in the NBA is all I ask for. Whatever team I end with, I know I’m going to give my all.”
Williamson immediately steps in as the centerpiece for a new-look Pelicans team that agreed to trade star big man Anthony Davis to the Los Angeles Lakers last week. In return, New Orleans will receive guards Lonzo Ball and Josh Hart, forward Brandon Ingram, the No. 4 pick in Thursday night’s draft and multiple future first-round selections once the trade is made official next month.
Ahead of the draft, New Orleans dealt that No. 4 pick, forward Solomon Hill, the No. 57 pick and a future second-round pick to the Atlanta Hawks for the No. 8, 17 and 35 picks, league sources told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Like Williamson, the second and third picks also went according to plan. Murray State point guard Ja Morant went second to the Memphis Grizzlies, and Williamson’s teammate at Duke, swingman RJ Barrett, went third to the New York Knicks.
Morant, an explosive athlete with a solid 3-point shooting stroke, led the Racers to the second round of the NCAA tournament, averaging 24.5 points and 10.0 assists per game while going from a mid-first-round pick before the season began to the clear No. 2 prospect entering draft night, according to ESPN’s Jonathan Givony and Mike Schmitz.
Morant steps in to a Grizzlies team that on Tuesday agreed to trade point guard stalwart Mike Conley to the Utah Jazz for forwards Jae Crowder and Kyle Korver, the No. 23 pick Thursday night and a protected future first-round pick.
Barrett, meanwhile, had been hoping to join the Knicks all along. Barrett’s mother, who is from Brooklyn, met his father, Rowan, while she was a track star and he was a basketball star at St. John’s in Queens.
“It would mean a lot,” Barrett, who was born in Canada, said Wednesday of getting the chance to play for the Knicks. “My late grandfather, rest in peace, he was the biggest Knicks fan. He’d always tell me I’d play for the Knicks. It would mean a lot to me.”
The presumptive No. 1 pick entering the college basketball season, Barrett’s star was surpassed by the comet that is Williamson. Still, the 6-foot-7 forward was seen as a part of the three-player tier considered a cut above the rest of the draft prospects after averaging 22.6 points, 7.6 rebounds and 4.3 assists at Duke last season.
Now he’ll get a chance to prove he’s up to the challenge he wanted to take on: reviving the Knicks, who had the league’s worst record in 2018-19.
“I mean, this is New York City, you want to be shown in Times Square,” Barrett said. “You want your picture there. You want those kinds of things.”
Now, he’ll get them.
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