Duke’s Zion Williamson flies high in games, stays grounded in life

After all the superlatives heaped on Zion Williamson, it seems crazy to say Duke’s star player is underappreciated, but he is.

It’s not that anyone failed to hail the 6-foot-7 freshman’s amazing leaping ability, his thunderous dunks and his astonishing quickness despite being the one of the game’s heaviest players at 287 pounds. It’s that for all his glory on the court, we may overlook his nature off it. He’s an 18-year-old awash in honors and soon to be given many millions of dollars, and he’s never let it go to his head.

And let’s be honest. Humility is not a quality associated with Duke basketball. It’s one reason there are so many anybody-but-Duke fans. But Williamson, for all his dominance, does not engender that response. He comes across as loyal and generous. After he strained his knee when his Nike shoe famously exploded, some thought he should stay out the rest of the season and protect his body and his value. He didn’t. He came back and played all out. He put his NBA fortune on the line to fulfill a college promise.

The Duke Chronicle’s Mitchell Gladstone wrote a fine review of Williamson’s year in which he included this assessment from Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski: “Having the opportunity not just to coach him but to get to know him, he is such a genuine young man and well advanced maturity-wise. He’s extremely intelligent book-wise, but [also] people-wise. And he’s humble. He’s really got everything. This is not a phony guy. And he’s more than a dunker; he’s a lot more than a dunker. He’s a very, very special human being and player.”

Williamson’s rare character was on display Sunday as he sat in the Duke locker room minutes after a crushing one-point loss to Michigan State in the NCAA Tournament’s East Region final.

Williamson barely knows what losing feels like. He’s won every top honor college basketball can confer. Yet there he was in a losing locker room in Washington, D.C.., stopped 1,000 miles from Minneapolis and the Final Four. He was somber, but not bitter. He acknowledged his mother (who was also his middle school basketball coach), congratulated the winners, complimented his teammates, praised his coach, accepted the judgment of the referees despite heavy contact from Michigan State defenders, and granted those who call Duke’s season a failure the right to their opinion, though he is grateful for all the team accomplished.

Listen in: “You know my mom taught me a lot — not a lot — she’s taught me everything I know. And you know, you don’t always win, you don’t always get what you want. So I truly mean this — congratulations to Michigan State. They’re a great team. They are very deserving of it. But this season has meant everything to me. Playing for the greatest coach of all time. Playing with this team is special.”

When told some would say Duke had “a failed year” because it didn’t get to the Final Four and win a national championship, he said: “What those people got to understand is only one team can be on top. And you know the odds of that are very slim. People are entitled to their own opinion. They have a right to think that. But I think the only opinions we’re worried about are the ones in this locker room. We battled. Not the outcome we wanted, but we played our hardest. That’s all you can ask for.”

That’s all you can ask for on the court, and a lot more than you can expect off it. After one season, Zion Williamson will go to the NBA without an NCAA championship but he’ll leave with another title: A class act.

Barnett: 919-829-4512, nbarnett@newsobserver.com