If there is anything that keeps the Duke Blue Devils forward Zion Williamson hindered for a while with injury, do Chicago Bulls draft plans change?
With the Chicago Bulls general manager Gar Forman spotted at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Feb. 20 for the Duke Blue Devils-North Carolina Tar Heels rivalry showdown, the impact felt from this game had to be large. Spanning all the way up to the ranks of NBA front offices, the Duke-UNC rivalry game to start off this season for the two was huge.
The Chicago Bulls having a stake in at least one of the premier Duke or UNC prospects for the 2019 NBA Draft was evident here. Forman clearly wanted to get his shot at scouting premier prospects like Duke forwards R.J. Barrett and Zion Williamson along with UNC’s Nassir Little.
There was a host of NBA talent in Cameron Indoor Stadium on Feb. 20. Even beyond what the potential 2019 NBA Draft lottery selections brought to the table in this rivalry bought, it is one of the most exciting showdowns of the college hoops season. Very few matchups can live up to the hype of a UNC-Duke showdown in the regular season.
So many people only care about the NCAA Tournament and “March Madness” for college hoops that the regular season tends to fall through the cracks for a lot of programs and general basketball fans. Yet, fans of the Chicago Bulls should have this game circled on the calendar because it features a few college players that could be future members of the franchise
One of those was Williamson, who had to exit the game very early on thanks to one of the weirdest injuries ever witnessed for a college superstar like himself. Zion went down less than a minute into the game because his foot busted through his shoe and caused a knee sprain that keep him out for a while.
An interesting grouping of celebrities were in the building for this game, including the most recent president in office before Donald Trump, Barack Obama. After the game, Obama even tweeted out some support for Zion. That was true for a ton of fans watching this game.
Zion Williamson seems like an outstanding young man as well as an outstanding basketball player. Wishing him a speedy recovery.
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) February 21, 2019
The support for Zion even extended to the impact that a game like this has on the NCAA’s pockets. Fans started tweeting out about players getting paid, which is always a touchy subject for the NCAA for quite oblivious reasons.
Again let’s remember all the money that went into this game.... and these players get none of it.... and now Zion gets hurt... something has to change @NCAA
— Donovan Mitchell (@spidadmitchell) February 21, 2019
However, with the Chicago Bulls 2019 NBA Draft plans in mind the injury to Zion could shake things up quite a bit. If the Bulls were planning on going with Zion in whatever means possible, even if it meant trading up, this injury might change something.
That could be jumping the gun a bit, though, since this is just a knee sprain and shouldn’t do much to hinder the long-term potential of Zion at the NBA level. The rest of this Duke team didn’t show out too well outside of Barrett too. It was a bad performance on them to come up more than 15-points short after coming into this one with the nation’s top overall ranking.
What could actually change with this game is the way that teams look at some of the UNC prospects. Senior UNC forward Luke Maye doesn’t seem to have a very potent NBA career in front of him, but this is the type of game that could change his fortunes. Zion should still be the far and away favorite to become the first overall selection.