Hype exists on varying degrees. It extends beyond sports to almost anything that can be advertised. There was hype for the final season of Game of Thrones. There was hype for Star Wars returning. There is even hype for the newest iPhones.
Hype is what the NBA thrives on. It lives to muster up more hype to become stronger. As if it was “The Hulk” soaking up more gamma rays.
Every other year we are supposed to get “hyped up” about the next “once in a lifetime player”. The term is so casually used it has almost become meaningless. Andrew Wiggins was once in a lifetime prospect. Somehow in the span of a few years, Ben Simmons emerged as another “once in a lifetime” player.
Now, Zion Williamson holds that title as the most talented prospect since LeBron James. Being the next once in a lifetime player only last so long. Eventually, the shine fades if they don’t win right away. Then we start to pick apart every flaw the player has.
Zion has basically been a legend for the last three years among Casual to Diehard basketball fans. People went from watching Zion in High School do amazing acrobatic 360 dunks to seeing him show off that amazing vertical in the biggest games in his lone season at Duke.
Zion has it all and with that, he has much-deserved hype. He is not the first person to have hype. He will not be the last.
The idea of the next “guy” in the NBA goes back for as long as the league has existed. Right now it seems like the fans and the media are looking for the next Lebron. The next player to be the unquestioned face of the league for the next 20 years.
Here are two cases of can’t miss guy.
Teams were actively “Rigging for Wiggins.” You can go back and finds tons of articles of how Wiggins was the next LeBron, how Andrew Wiggins will be a star in this league. Wiggins has all of the tools. People were saying his ceiling was MVP caliber and basement was All-Star player.
Well after five years Wiggins is an afterthought, with a massive contract the Timberwolves are looking to unload. Wiggins is only 24, he can still become an excellent player. He is no longer considered the next star of the league.
Ben Simmons is another example everyone loved him going into the draft. After two seasons of Simmons being afraid to shoot 3s, the shine has simmered on this star. This does not mean he can not be an MVP one day. Right now you can’t hear Ben Simmons’s name on TV without it being followed up with “can’t shoot”.
This isn’t either of these two players fault. Sure, they have flaws but they need time to develop. Since we anointed them stars at the beginning of their careers we can only be disappointed if they are anything but that.
It seems elite draft prospects are like Giant Hollywood Blockbuster movies. We get all jazzed up about the trailers. Then the product comes out and we see it and we think we like it. Then we go home and digest it and realized maybe that wasn’t so great. Andrew Wiggins is “The Force Awakens” of players you loved it at first. Now you just realize it’s okay and has more than a few problems.
Maybe it’s better to be like Giannis Antetokounmpo. You enter the league as basically an unknown. Work your way up from a nobody to an MVP. Zion doesn’t have that choice. He will face many obstacles in his career but the biggest is being Zion Williamson.