All anyone could talk about before, during, and after the contest was Zion Williamson’s NBA debut and what it meant to the National Basketball Association. ESPN was so convinced of his box-office appeal they replaced the previously scheduled program with the Pelicans game, and to be fair, who wouldn’t want to watch the most polarizing prospect since LeBron James take the floor for the first time?
The first overall pick of the 2019 Draft crawled out of the gates, and though the Smoothie King Center crowd and national television audience weren’t there for LaMarcus Aldridge, the big man stole the spotlight.