OT: Zion Williamson leaves game after 34sec due to knee injury caused by shoe malfunction
Title says it all. UNC currently blowing Duke out also.
February 20th, 2019 at 10:31 PM ^
Ignore these...was learning how to link on Pixel.
February 20th, 2019 at 10:31 PM ^
Ignore once more.
February 20th, 2019 at 10:35 PM ^
Wow. I guess he wont be a Nike athlete in the nba.
February 21st, 2019 at 12:00 AM ^
Mars was right!
February 21st, 2019 at 12:16 AM ^
Actually an interesting question. Williamson is already almost unquestionably the recipient of significant Nike cash; one of the reasons Nike likes to get guys into their schools (and that Nike and Adidas both throw money around like candy in AAU) is that they like to get guys on their "track" early to get better chances at signing them. Williamson, playing for Duke, is kinda sorta under Nike "control" right now and that gives them a good chance to sign him to the big deal later on.
Money is important, of course, but there's more to it than that. Players care about how they will be marketed, what kind of role they'll have, that kind of thing. I recall reading that Steph Curry signed with Under Armour in part because of stuff like that and the relationship he felt he would have with the management.
I imagine NIke will have guys on the ground in Durham by tomorrow; nominally to work with the athletic department, but in large part to show Williamson and guys like Barrett and Reddish that they care and that they are a good choice later on.
It's more than just one bad shoe, but how they respond to that one bad shoe will mean a lot. I would think.
February 21st, 2019 at 4:31 AM ^
The death knell for Nike with Curry was when Nike was doing their presentation trying to re-sign Curry, and one PowerPoint slide had Kevin Durant's name on it instead of Curry's.
February 21st, 2019 at 11:10 AM ^
oops.. It's like that WKRP in Cincinnati episode "I have no idea how that pornographic slide got in there..."
February 21st, 2019 at 8:24 AM ^
Does the celeb endorsement really make that big of a difference to the kids? I know people were killing each other over Jordan's in the 80's and there are Sneakerheads, but how many stars actually have influence?
February 21st, 2019 at 8:33 AM ^
"I imagine NIke will have guys on the ground in Durham by tomorrow"
I promise that at a high profile game like that between two Nike schools they had LOTS of guys in Durham last night. No way that shoe made it to the locker room unless it was in the hands of a Nike employee.
February 20th, 2019 at 10:36 PM ^
What a horrible look for Nike.
February 20th, 2019 at 11:43 PM ^
Were they Jordan’s?...just sayin’.
February 20th, 2019 at 11:58 PM ^
Nope - they were Paul George's model in Duke colors
February 21st, 2019 at 2:01 AM ^
Uhh you really think Jordan is gonna sponsor Duke when he went to UNC...?
February 21st, 2019 at 2:51 AM ^
That’s the joke.
February 21st, 2019 at 2:26 PM ^
Thank you
February 21st, 2019 at 6:18 AM ^
Must have been made at Nike's Chapel Hill, Bangladesh plant.
February 20th, 2019 at 10:41 PM ^
Nike shoes are crap now.
February 20th, 2019 at 10:43 PM ^
It’s a chicken or the egg thing
February 20th, 2019 at 10:44 PM ^
Not a Jumpman shoe, obviously.
February 20th, 2019 at 11:04 PM ^
For those that are wondering, it was a Nike PG (Paul George) 2.5 shoe.
February 20th, 2019 at 11:15 PM ^
Well there's the problem: he only had a half version of that shoe. You just cant expect 50% of a shoe to contain 100% of a foot.
February 20th, 2019 at 11:19 PM ^
Maybe it is a size 2.5 - you can't expect a man that big to play with such small feet. That is an accident waiting to happen.
February 21st, 2019 at 12:31 AM ^
How did he do such fantastic stunts with such little feet?!
--Hedy Lamarr
(PS. That's Hedley)
February 21st, 2019 at 12:58 AM ^
The hell are you worried about? This is 1874, you’ll be able to sue her!
February 20th, 2019 at 10:47 PM ^
Fuck Duke and coach K.
February 20th, 2019 at 10:52 PM ^
Hope it's a sprain, and hope he had insurance. He should sit the rest of the year. Barring a catastrophic injury he's a top lottery pick lock at this point.
February 20th, 2019 at 10:57 PM ^
Zion Phil'd that left shoe up. Bad Knight for Duke.
February 20th, 2019 at 11:23 PM ^
Nike has deep pockets
February 20th, 2019 at 10:56 PM ^
Nothing a little shoe goo and hair dryer can’t fix.
February 20th, 2019 at 10:56 PM ^
Blame the Knicks!
February 20th, 2019 at 11:01 PM ^
Wish zion well but fuck duke and coach k. Hope zion sits out and gets ready for the draft.
February 20th, 2019 at 11:16 PM ^
February 20th, 2019 at 11:51 PM ^
National Championship back up for grabs?
February 21st, 2019 at 3:43 PM ^
It's up for grabs even if Zion plays. Yeah, they are good, but the team can't shoot consistently from the outside (as we saw last night....again). It's their achilles heel.
February 21st, 2019 at 9:11 AM ^
This was a topic on the radio a couple of weeks ago. They discussed whether or not Zion should sit the rest of the season and sign an agent. At first I thought that was crazy to even bring up. If you are the consensus #1 pick, I can't be mad if he sits out to avoid injury. Why risk it for a coach who makes $10M/yr?
February 21st, 2019 at 9:44 AM ^
Kyrie Irving played like 12 games in college and I believe was the No. 1 overall pick. Zion Williamson shouldn't play another game and just wait for his check. By coincidence, Duke will be much worse without him so it helps Michigan. Win-win.
February 21st, 2019 at 1:52 PM ^
But he didn't sit out the season and skip the tournament.
February 20th, 2019 at 11:14 PM ^
33 seconds
Links work in an OP, man.
February 20th, 2019 at 11:19 PM ^
Just Blew It
-Nike
February 20th, 2019 at 11:23 PM ^
Just Sue It
February 21st, 2019 at 9:32 AM ^
Just glue it
February 21st, 2019 at 12:45 PM ^
I see what you did there
February 20th, 2019 at 11:19 PM ^
While Zion's talent was surely missed, the missing storyline was the emotional impact his injury had on Duke.
February 21st, 2019 at 8:01 AM ^
Poor Duke... We should feel bad that a guy they outbid Kansas for got hurt and negatively impacts their title chances...
February 21st, 2019 at 11:38 AM ^
I know he's a great player and everything but isn't Duke supposed to be loaded with other guys like that? The rest of the team played awful and UNC ran them off their home court. Overall it was a pretty embarassing loss. Starting to think they're maybe a bit overrated (imagine that).
February 20th, 2019 at 11:29 PM ^
So the supposed #1 team loses one 5-star out of 6 on the team and the team falls apart? At home? Zion might be the best player on Duke or even the entire NCAA, but a team with that much talent demonstrated how mentally weak they are and how overrated Coach K is.
February 20th, 2019 at 11:42 PM ^
Coach K is not overrated. He is accurately rated as one of the greatest of all time.
I hate Duke more than any other team, but there's no way a guy with as many accomplishments as him is overrated. It's just not possible.
And yeah, they may be mentally weak. All of their contributors are 18 years old.