Zion Williamson lit up the McDonald’s All-American dunk contest, as he was born to do

Zion Williamson is going to be a lot of fun to watch in college next year, even though he’s going to Duke.

In fact, Duke in general is going to be a lot of fun to watch thanks to their array of top talent, but Williamson is a special part of that:

Zion Williamson is a very, very good high school basketball player. The 6’6″ power forward with a 272-lb frame was the highest-ranked player who had yet to commit to a school; for most colleges, he’d be the clear crown jewel in their 2018 recruiting class.

It’s not hard to see why, either; he’s basically Shawn Kemp 2.0:

The main thing, though, is that Duke is probably going to be a ton of fun to watch next year; not all of their current team will leave, of course, and the holdovers will get to play with what looks like an outstanding incoming class of freshmen. And, again, Zion Williamson is going to dunk all over people. They might be fun to hate, but they’ll probably be nearly as fun to watch.

Williamson is obviously a McDonald’s All-American, and with that game on Wednesday, he took part in the dunk contest last night. It was, as they say, lit:

Again, Williamson is 6’6″ and 272 pounds as a high school senior (and a young one, at that; he’s not going to turn 18 until July), and he can absolutely fly. That’s a ridiculous amount of frame, and before the NBA’s current small ball trend, he might have been viewed as a tweener. But now, if he can translate his athleticism onto the defensive end of the floor, his size and build is probably more of an asset; it’s not hard to see him as a switch-everything defender in the mode of Draymond Green, with plenty of bounce on the offensive end of the floor as well.

That’s getting out ahead of things, though; Williamson has at least one year at Duke ahead, playing with some of the other top recruits in the country on what could be one of the more entertaining teams we’ve seen in college basketball for a while. But in fairness, whichever team he’s on would have been one of the more entertaining teams we’ve seen in a while.

Also, shoutout to his fellow dunk contest finalist, UConn women’s recruit Olivia Nelson-Ododa: