Duke Blue Devils star Zion Williamson will be back in the lineup for Thursday night's game against Syracuse in the ACC Tournament. Williamson has not played since he tore through his Nike PG 2.5s in the opening seconds of Duke's loss to UNC on February 20.
So what will Zion be lacing up for his much anticipated return? Judging from today's tweet by the Duke Men's Basketball twitter account, it'll be the Nike Kyrie 4.
Williamson suffered what the team described as a mild knee sprain after blowing out his PG 2.5s, and he has missed the team's last five games. Duke went 3-2 during that stretch, including losses to Virginia Tech and UNC in the regular season finale.
With his status as the #1 pick in the 2019 NBA Draft all but guaranteed, many current and former NBA stars had advised Zion to sit out the rest of the season rather than risk further injury. However, Kobe Bryant encouraged the 18-year old phenom to get back out their with his teammates.
(Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
In an interview with Marc Spears of The Undefeated, Kobe said:
"In terms of Zion, if he’s healthy, he should go play. He made a decision to go to college and injuries are a part of that process and sometimes you get hurt, sometimes you don’t, man. But you made the decision to go to college and you made your commitment to the university, then by all means finish your commitment. I expect him to get healthy, get his knee better or whatever it was and come out and kick ass."
The Blue Devils enter the ACC Tournament as the #3 seed. Duke vs Syracuse, airing on ESPN, is scheduled to tip at 9:00pm ET. The victor will take on the winner of #2 UNC vs #7 Louisville.
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