New Orleans Pelicans star Zion Williamson was wise beyond his years as a high school student.
Williamson has arguably been the most famous basketball player other than LeBron James for the past few years, and he was apparently very aware of the downsides to his level of fame as a high school student. (RELATED: David Hookstead Is The True King In The North When It Comes To College Football)
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During an interview with JJ Redick on “The Old Man and the Three” podcast, Williamson said he had to write a poem for a creative writing class as a senior, and he chose to write about two men. One man has everything anyone could want and endless attention.
The other is trapped by his fame and feels like it locks him up. Ultimately, it’s the same person. Watch Williamson break it down below.
This is one of my all-time favorite podcast moments ever. So cool to see a superstar like Zion open up and be vulnerable like this.
Bravo @OldManAndThree @jj_redick @talter pic.twitter.com/lD4Y5xRbKK
— Jason Gallagher (@jga41agher) March 3, 2021
Zion is such an insanely impressive young man. It’s honestly hard to put into words how smart and intelligent he is.
As a teenager in high school, he was already well-aware of the pitfalls that fame could bring. Most kids would give anything to be famous.
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They apparently don’t ever read stories about child stars and what happens as they grow up. Zion was clearly aware before ever even playing for Duke that it wasn’t all sunshine and roses. It takes a hell of a lot of maturity to look at the situation with such clarity.
Props to Zion for being open and honest about his fears with fame. You rarely see that kind of authenticity today.