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NBA Draft: 30 greatest No. 1 overall picks in league history

By Josh Cornelissen

25 Jun 1997: Center Tim Duncan of the San Antonio Spurs speaks with a reporter during the NBA Draft at the Charlotte Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina. Mandatory Credit: Craig Jones /Allsport
25 Jun 1997: Center Tim Duncan of the San Antonio Spurs speaks with a reporter during the NBA Draft at the Charlotte Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina. Mandatory Credit: Craig Jones /Allsport /
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Zion Williamson
Zion Williamson Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images /

NBA Draft: 30 greatest No. 1 overall picks in league history: 26. Zion Williamson

It seems reckless bordering on ludicrous to include a player on this list who has less than a season’s worth of games on his ledger. Zion Williamson has played in just 76 games at the time of writing, spread across his first two seasons in the league. Yet the level to which Williamson has played thus far demands inclusion on this list, and will likely propel him up it in the years to come.

The South Carolina native joined a superstar freshman class at Duke for the 2018-19 NBA season. Williamson’s elite athleticism and nightly highlight plays made him a national phenomenon, one that drew celebrities from Lebron James to Barrack Obama. He was the obvious pick first overall for the New Orleans Pelicans.

Williamson was a force down low as a rookie, moving offball to find seams on the interior and scoring with a smooth touch. As a sophomore, he has played with the ball in his hands, unleashed as a playmaker and freight train that cannot be stopped en route to the rim. He is averaging 26.8 points per game on a staggering 61.4 percent from the field.

Williamson is doing things no player has ever done, scoring as efficiently as Shaquille O’Neal while handling the ball like a guard. NBA defenses have not yet found a solution to him, and he is only getting better as he is not old enough to drink yet. Zion ranks in the top-10 among first overall picks in Box Plus-Minus, and with the right team-building around him, has to finish in the top 10 on a future version of this list. He is that good out of the gate.