AP Photo/Gerry Broome
Zion Williamson has made Duke basketball must-see TV, but his size and explosiveness prompted one coach to attempt to convince him to switch sports.
- Zion Williamson has taken the college basketball world by storm.
- Three games into his college career, Williamson has lived up to the hype, throwing down explosive dunks and turning Duke basketball into must-see television.
- A recent ESPN story revealed that Williamson's dunks in high school were so impressive, LSU reached out to him to offer him a scholarship to switch to football.
Zion Williamson has lived up to the hype.
After years of high school highlight reels uploaded to YouTube showing off his explosive dunks, Williamson has transitioned to college ball with ease, dominating opponents and helping Duke off to a 3-0 start to the season.
Despite being just three games into his college career, Williamson has already earned praise from the highest echelons of the basketball world, and his dunks continue to leave viewers in shock and awe every time he throws one down.
On film, Williamson is so impressive that while he was in high school, he was offered a scholarship to LSU... to play football.
According to ESPN's Jeff Borzello, Williamson came onto the radar of Eric Mateos in the fall of 2016 through his viral dunking compilations. Mateos, who was at the time LSU's tight ends coach, was so impressed by his explosiveness, and by the potential publicity, that he got Williamson's number and offered him a scholarship to switch to football and join the LSU Tigers.
Mateos admitted that head coach head coach Ed Orgeron likely didn't even know he had floated the offer.
"I thought, hell, why not, he's probably the best damn tight end to ever live," Mateos told ESPN.
"Honestly, I just thought it would be really fun and would be good exposure for LSU if we offered him for football," Mateos said. "Coach O said go recruit the best athletes in the country, and that's what I tried to do."
Looking at Williamson, who stands 6-foot-7, weighs a whopping 285 pounds, and seems capable of running through a brick wall when he moves down the court full-steam ahead, it's easy to see how dominant he could be on the football field.
But Williamson never got back to Mateos, and that's probably for the best - so far at Duke, he's already averaging more than 25 points and 10 rebounds per game, and is currently shooting over 82% from the floor.
As it turns out, there's a good reason Williamson never considered suiting up for football.
"I didn't get this size until my junior year of high school," Williamson told ESPN earlier in the year. "And my school doesn't have a football team."
With how bright his future in basketball currently looks, it's pretty obvious that Williamson made the right call.