“Mom Put me on Magic, Bird, Michael Jordan. Stepfather is More Old School”: Zion Williamson Names Players his Parents Pushed Him to Study Growing Up

A couple of weeks back, Zion Williamson missed out on a few games with injuries. However, ever since the former Duke Blue Devil made his comeback to the lineup, the 22-year-old has been playing at an incredible level altogether.

The New Orleans Pelicans are one of the hottest teams in the league, having won 8 out of their last 10 games. Placed #3 in the Western Conference, Williamson’s great form has been a huge reason for the team’s success.

Coming off a 33-point, 10-rebound double-double performance in the dominant win against the Toronto Raptors, Zanos had yet another impressive performance on Friday night.

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Zion Williamson names the players who he studied while growing up

During the Pels clash against the San Antonio Spurs, the 6-foot-6 forward flirted with a triple-double, putting up 30 points, 15 rebounds, and 8 assists on 64.3% shooting from the field.

After the 117-99 win over Gregg Popovich’s boys, Williamson had a rather interesting postgame interview.

Over the past few games, Willie Green has promoted Zion playing the point guard position. Due to the common occurrence, a reporter asked the youngster to name the guards whose games he watched growing up.

Giving a detailed breakdown of the type of players each of his parents pushed for him to analyse, the All-Star said:

“My mom put me on Magic, Bird because of their playmaking abilities… watched Michael Jordan, you know he’s a phenomenal scorer. When he had to play point guard, he averaged a triple-double.

My stepfather is more so like old school, you got Kenny Anderson I’d watch, Earl Monroe, a player named Slick Watts a lot of people don’t know. He kinda put me on those kind of players cause, Fly Williams, he put me on those players cause they just play fundamentally sound basketball but they all had their own flair to it.”

Can Williamson make his 2nd All-Star appearance?

After missing out on the whole of the 2021-22 season, Zion has been having a tremendous campaign so far.

Averaging 23.5 points, 7.1 rebounds, 4.3 assists, and 1.3 steals per game on almost 60% FG, the former #1 pick has been the go-to guy for NOLA.

Since Brandon Ingram sat out with injuries after the Grizzlies-Pels clash, the highflyer has stepped up big time. Over the past 3 games, the youngster has been putting up 28.7 points, 11 rebounds, 7 assists, 2.3 steals, and 2 blocks on an extremely efficient 68.1 FG% & 84.6 FT%.

Goes without saying, if Williamson manages to keep this type of production up, there is no reason why we won’t see Zion make his 2nd All-Star Game appearance later in the season.

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