To the left is a picture of Zion the moment his shoe

gave out and ripped during the big rival game. HIs
A Career Stolen? face shows the pain he feels from his knee, and his
foot is shown through the rip in the shoe.

Below is a picture of Zion going up to dunk in a game

The Story of Zion Williamson at the Cameron Indoor Stadium. Showing superior
skills among the other players.

Zion Williamson is a collegiate At the beginning of a sold out

basketball player for the Division
1 Duke Blue Devils. He is 285
pounds of pure muscle and is 6
foot 7 inches tall. He is projected
to be the number one pick in the
draft after his freshman year in
college. Basketball players have
to go to college for at least a
year before they go to the NBA,
no matter how talented they are.
This brings in a lot of money for
the NCAA, because, potentially,
they can get professional players
to play in all of these big
tournaments. The NCAA also
has the rights to sell their jerseys
and keep the money from that,
so they are technically selling
professional jerseys without
giving any money to the players.
Duke sells out almost every
single game, so one can imagine
how much money that is, not
including the snacks and gear
that is bought at the games.
Duke also has a multi-million
dollar deal with Nike, these are
the perks of being a division one
athlete. However, if a player is a
top prospect, such as Zion, they
recieve no extra money, even
though they are bringing in
tremendous amounts of extra
money.
game against rivals North
Carolina, Zion got hurt the
starting play. He went to cut and
his Paul George Nike shoes
blew out and his foot went
through the seam, hurting his
knee. Zion, the top prospect for
the NBA in the following year,
could have a season ending
injury. He could lose his entire
basketball career in a matter of
seconds, without getting paid a
dime. At this rival game,
according to Luis Bien from
sbnation, the average ticket cost
$4,000. Darren Rovell tweeted
about this game, saying a broker
told him Zion brought in $1,000
for each resold ticket. Zion
receives none of the money from
this, obviously, because it is
against NCAA regulations for
athletes to make any profit from
the university outside of their
scholarships. This is difficult for
big name players. Imagine how
many tickets are sold because of
them in the first place, and the
profit they are bringing to the
university without seeing a dime
of it.
At this moment, with his shoe
blown out and a hurt knee, he
has a choice. He could try and
come back to play in his
freshman season and risk hurting his knee
again or getting injured even worse than
before, which could end his career. The other
option he has is— he could sit for the rest of
the year with the surety that he is still the
number one pick in the draft, and be
guaranteed millions of dollars once he signs.
Isaiah Thomas tweeted after the injury
happened saying, “Let these kids go straight
out of HS!!! Too much on the line to be messing
with college if you got a legit chance to turn
pro. One injury can change somebody career,
Zion sit yo a** down lol and we will be ready for
you in the big boy league
#LookingOutForThePlayers.” Isaiah
understands the potential of Zion and what is in
store for him in the future. Zion has gotten a ton
of feedback from so many people about his
situation and what to do. What would you do?
Imagine being the number one draft pick, with
millions just sitting there, waiting for him in his
future and all he has to do to guarantee it, is sit
down and wait for it. On the other hand, he
would miss out on the college experience,
march madness, the chance of a title, and
playing the game, but he would be
saving himself from the threat of losing
everything he has worked for in a matter of
seconds.
Like Isaiah Thomas said, these athletes should
be able to go to the NBA. The best potential
professional athletes are well known in high
school; they do not usually just come up out of
nowhere. For example, in high school, Zion
was predicted to be top five in the NBA draft, so
why not just let him go? Why have him waste
his time in college and risk getting hurt— losing
all of his hard work with no reward? LeBron got
to go to the NBA straight from high school and
he is now getting paid more money than
anyone can spend, along with breaking records
left and right. When an athlete has this much
potential they should not be held back, just let
them go, let them receive what they have
earned. The rule has been under fire for the
position it is putting young player in. It is almost
as if the NBA put it in place just so that they
could put off paying professional athletes for a
year, instead of doing what is best for them in
their futures
The good thing about most of these college
professionals is that the reason they keep
playing is because they love the game, to
most, it is not about the money. However,
they should not be receiving little to nothing
when they bring in tremendous amounts of
extra money. Even though it is not the
NCAA’s rule, they are using the rule to get
huge amounts of money from players.
Athletes like Zion should not have to go a
year in college for no apparent reason just to
risk their entire career. They should be able
to recognize their talents and receive what
they have worked for without the worry of an
injury during their career.
In the end, Zion made his choice, he is again
playing for Duke and is about to enter into
the big tournament, March Madness. He
decided to come back for his team, to keep
his commitments, and give his teammates
his all in working towards the goal of winning
the big dance. Everyday he risks getting
severely injured, and losing his entire career
and future, but he is willing, and is playing
because he loves the game. On top of that,
who wouldn’t want a shot to win the biggest
trophy in college basketball?