Zion Williamson – A Rising Basketball Star


Erik Drost on Flickr, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Basketball lives in the hearts of Americans. It is the reason that you’ll never hear an American saying No to a basketball game. Apart from that, Americans cheer to their favorite stars like no other nation. In this article, I am going to talk about one such rising star who is setting new records in basketball and has quickly established his position in the competitive world of basketball. 

Yes, you guessed it right. I am talking about Zion Williamson. In this article, I am going to list down everything that you might want to know about this amazing rising star of the basketball world. 

So, without any further ado, let’s take a look into everything that you want to know about this amazingly talented young basketball star. 

Here you go:

A Little Bit of Biography 

Zion Williamson was born on July 6, 2000, in Salisbury, North Carolina. He went to Spartanburg Day School, where he showed his amazing skills as a basketball player. It was the reason that he was the only consensus five-star recruit. That’s not it. He was ranked among the top 5 players in the class of 2018. Pretty amazing, right?

This was only the start. Once he established his position, he started achieving one milestone after another. With his brilliant game and talent, he led his team to three state championships straight. After that, it was natural that in his senior year, he received the South Carolina Mr. Basketball title. After that, everybody knew that this young boy is going to set some records in the future, and he got more recognition than ever after he left high school as a McDonald’s All-American runner-up for Mr. Basketball USA. 

Now that you know a brief introduction about this super talented basketball star, let’s break down his achievements throughout these different phases of life. 

Here you go:

Early Life of Zion Williamson 

Most of you now know about when and where Williamson was born, and of course, we all know him for his brilliant performance in basketball. But, how many of you knew that he also played soccer and quarterback position in football. He was only five years old when he decided that he is going to be a basketball star one day, and that’s when he started working on it. I think it’s pretty much safe to say now that the young star is living his childhood dream. 

His mother, Sharonda Sampson used to coach her, and in her supervision, he competed in many youth leagues. It was the result of his mother’s amazing coaching and support and his love for the basketball that he played against the players who were much older than him at Sumter Falcons on the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) circuit.

After that, Williamson decided to take a little break and started working with his stepdad, who is also a former basketball player, Lee Anderson. He worked with his stepdad to improve his skills as a point guard. Then he joined a basketball team at Johnakin Middle School in Marion, South Carolina. Again, his mother was his coach here, and he scored an average of 20 points per game. 

Something more about his High school Career

Williamson attended Spartanburg Day School as a freshman and sophomore. If you’ve heard about this school before then, it’s because of the fact that it was a small K-12 private school. This was the time when Williamson was growing, and his height was increasing at a remarkable pace, which is great news for someone who always wanted to be a basketball star. 

In his freshmen and sophomore years, he kept playing football and achieved several titles, and won many games. He kept his streak of setting records, and it was the time when he started planning about his junior year and what the future holds for him and his game.

His Junior Season

At the very beginning of his junior year, Williamson scored an average of 36.8 points. Apart from that, he averaged 13 rebounds, 3 steals, and 2.5 blocks per game, which is big for someone of his age. From there, it was a straight road uphill for Williamson. He started making his name into the highlights. You can imagine how popular he was by the end of 2017 that in an Instagram post, Drake wore his jersey, and that was the point that Williamson received nationwide recognition. More and more basketball lovers started following his games and start cheering and rooting for him when he was playing.` 

His Senior Season 

Senior year was no different for Williamson as he kept making new records and kept playing games one after another and proved himself in every game that he played. This was the year when Williamson was the runner-up for the Mr. Basketball USA title. However, he won South Carolina Mr. Basketball recognition. 

Recruiting and College Career 

Wofford offered Williamson his first college basketball scholarship when he was a freshman in high school. But after that, when he received a scholarship offer from Duke, he took it and started his college. That’s where his college career started, and he started shining brighter than ever. He chose Duke in a live ESPN telecast and explained why he chose Duke over other colleges because he had many other options, as I explained earlier.

You can find all his achievements just by searching his name. Therefore, let’s just skip to them because if you are a true basketball fan and you have an eye to pick your favorite players, then you might already know it. 

As 2021 starts, we wish the young player all the best, and we hope that he keeps making us proud by achieving more and more in every game. 2020 has been rough for everyone out there. Sports fans also missed a whole year of fun and excitement. Let’s hope that 2021 will bring some good news for all of us, and we get to enjoy our favorite games in the stadiums will be cups full of bears and plates full of nachos. 

 

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