Meet Zion Williamson, a 6”7 Junior from Spartanburg Day High School, who has taken the nation by storm the past few months. Zion is currently ranked second in ESPN’s Top 60 high school player rankings for the Class of 2018, and has offers from 26 colleges and counting. His basketball highlights can be seen all over YouTube, BallisLife, and many other websites, has his thunderous dunks, great passing skills, and all other aspects of his game can be found in videos like this.

Zion has caused some controversy with his rankings however, as many believe the level of competition he plays against is what makes him look so good. Attending Spartanburg Day School in the upstate of South Carolina, he plays in the SCISA AA division, the closest school to him sitting nearly 2,500 spots below them on the national rankings. On the local level, private schools Porter Gaud, First Baptist, and Pinewood Prep are all a level above Spartanburg Day, taking most of the competition out of the local level. Although his high school season typically features much weaker opponents, Spartanburg Day has begun scheduling tougher opponents, in addition to selling tickets for the first time at games. One of these games against top schools was against Gray Collegiate, another premier athletic prep school in Columbia, SC. Gray Collegiate has South Carolina’s top player in the Class of 2017, Jalek Felton, a University of North Carolina commit. The two heavyweights met at the Chick-Fil-A classic in late December and Zion silenced all doubters, scoring 53 points in front of a crowd that sold out in under an hour. His highlights from this closely contested game can be found here, with Zion’s skills on full display.

Most colleges don’t seem to be worried about the level of Zion’s competition, as Kentucky, Louisville, UNC, and UCLA are some of the top names vying for Zion’s commitment to their school, as they believe he is a player that can take them top of the college basketball world. Zion also regularly travels to top AAU tournaments with his teams, playing against some of the other best prospects in the country. In addition these tournaments, Williamson has been to many basketball camps personally run by the professional athletes, events that are scoured by college scouts and coaches every summer. As Zion Williamson’s run a top the basketball world continues, I’ll happily watch his highlights while trying to take advantage of his local stature to catch a live game.