Zion center of attention at media day

Associated Press

NEW YORK

Zion Williamson smiled his way through nearly half an hour of questions, trying to portray himself like any player just hoping to be drafted.

Suddenly, Duke teammate RJ Barrett pushed his way to the front of the shoulder-to-shoulder swarm surrounding Williamson and shot down that idea.

“What does it feel like,” Barrett asked, “to be the best prospect since LeBron James?”

Williamson has similar hype. Soon, he can start showing if he has the game to match.

The powerhouse power forward will almost certainly be doing it in the uniform of the New Orleans Pelicans, who hold the No. 1 pick tonight at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

NBA teams are discouraged from announcing who they will pick, and the Pelicans confirmed nothing to Williamson when he visited recently.

“They just told me that maybe they’ll draft me and I’m a good player or something,” Williamson said.

Maybe?

It would be one of the biggest surprises in the NBA in years if the Pelicans passed on a player whose combination of size, speed and skill calls to mind James and few others. Listed at 6-foot-7 and 285 pounds, Williamson averaged 22.6 points and 8.9 rebounds while shooting 68 percent and was named national player of the year by The Associated Press.

His sledgehammer slams were good for college, but Williamson wants to be known for more than his above-the-rim game in the pros. In fact, he isn’t eager to take part in the Slam Dunk Contest.

Instead, he’s been improving his 3-point shot, and Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski noted that Williamson was previously a perimeter player before bulking up and becoming a force around the basket.

“He’s still only 18 years old,” Krzyzewski said on his SiriusXM radio show. “And as good of an athlete — he’s a top percentile athlete in the world, not just in the game of basketball. He’s that level of young man.”

Memphis has the No. 2 pick and an apparent opening at point guard for Murray State’s Ja Morant after agreeing to trade Mike Conley to Utah on Wednesday. Barrett is hoping he’ll go to the New York Knicks with the third pick, and whoever lands at No. 4 is set to be Williamson’s teammate because the Lakers included the pick in the package for Davis.

The season-long attention on Williamson dwarfed nearly everything else, so all eyes will be on him tonight as he walks onto the stage to greet Commissioner Adam Silver. Williamson called himself a simple guy, so maybe he won’t wear the type of flashy suit that it is the usual draft-night dress code; the striped sweater he wore Wednesday was certainly plain enough.

His game definitely isn’t.

Williamson sees himself more as a team player than franchise savior. He wasn’t expecting to be the No. 1 option at Duke and isn’t lobbying for the job in New Orleans.

“I don’t really look at the expectations,” Williamson said. “I just want to win at the end of the day and I’m just going to try to be the best version of myself, and whatever the team needs me to do I’m going to be willing to do it.”

But his standards are high, responding to a question about his goals by saying they include “MVP, Rookie of the Year and eventually possibly Defensive Player of the Year. Hall of Famer.”

Not even James has done all that.