The most high stakes action in the NBA Bubble might be happening on a non-contender. It’s about what one man, only 20 years old, represents, in the near term and into the future.
The NBA is already banking on Zion Williamson, which has something to do with why there are 22 teams in the bubble and why the New Orleans Pelicans were featured in the opening game. Built like a tank with flubber wheels, Williamson came into the league carrying that box office je ne sais quoi. As a freshman at Duke, he had America watching NCAA games like they hadn’t in over a decade. As an NBA rookie, his first games were highly anticipated affairs in a season that lacked much intrigue.
It’s a rarer than rare quality, too. There are players who enter the NBA as sure thing superstars (Anthony Davis), and talented teenagers who eventually turn into megastars (Kobe), but rarely, if ever, are there players who come into the league as household names, capable of…
