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RJ Barrett Has Accomplished Something Only Eight Other Players Have Ever Done

One of the great understated accomplishments of Duke’s 2018-19 team was just how smoothly RJ Barrett and Zion Williamson co-existed. And actually that’s the wrong word: they thrived as teammates.

It might not have been that way.

Barrett has clearly shown an alpha personality on the court and did so at Duke despite Williamson’s vast physical superiority.

But partly because Williamson was willing to defer to Barrett, at one point calling Duke “RJ’s team” and allowing him to express his instincts and partly because the two struck up a genuine mutual admiration society, there was never a hint of tension or jealousy between the two.