How Naruto Helped Zion Williamson Through the Toughest Year of His Career

Intersting article that seems to be blowing up on Reddit and such about Zion's love of anime.

Nice article that does what it feels like little coverage has done in the last year and actually look at Zion the person and not caricature him from assumptions and speculation. Even offers a bit of insight into his relationship with his step father and the personal struggles during his broken foot, of course, all incorporating his apparent love of Naruto.

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Zion estimates that around 80% of players in the league are into anime; they just won’t admit it. Those familiar with the conventions of the form know that it would be hard to craft a genre better suited to professional athletes: Shonen anime (the term for shows targeted at boys) often revolve around a protagonist striving to achieve greatness in their chosen field, be it high seas piracy (One Piece) or fighting alien warlords using energy blasts so powerful they turn your hair gold (Dragon Ball Z). They’re long-form stories about what it takes to be The Best—not incidentally, the same goal that drives athletes.

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The storyline reminds Williamson of the years he spent being coached by his stepfather, Lee Anderson. He considers Anderson taking him under his wing perhaps the single most pivotal moment of his life.

Anderson told Williamson that could be the number one player in the country if he worked hard enough. “He always told me that even if I didn’t realize it yet, there was going to come a time when the world would see me,” Williamson says. “I didn’t get it for a while. I was always asking him why he was so confident in me.” Eventually, though, he’d worked hard enough for it to be undeniable: “Sure enough, I’m 16 years old and suddenly all of the attention starts coming. I remember thinking, Yo, that’s crazy. That’s exactly when it happened for Naruto, and it’s when it’s happening for me.”

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We cannot discuss Williamson without addressing the last year of his career, which has been turbulent to say the least. Before the start of the ‘21-22 NBA season Williamson broke his foot, the most severe setback in a still-young career riddled with injury. Rehabilitation proved rocky, and it eventually became evident that he wouldn’t take the court with his teammates on the New Orleans Pelicans for the duration of the season.

Speculation ran rampant: pundits and fans alike wondered whether he had any desire to play on the team, whether he’d be the first player in NBA history to turn down a max rookie extension, whether he’d prove one of the most significant busts in NBA draft history. Much of the chatter focused uncomfortably on his size.

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As he’s so often done during difficult times, Williamson turned to his favorite show for guidance. I ask if there’s a point in Naruto’s story that he feels is synonymous with where he is right now. His answer is immediate. “It’s when Sasuke was going rogue,” he says, referring to Naruto’s close friend and rival. “All of Naruto’s friends and teammates came to him like, ‘Dude, you’re gonna have to make tough decisions if you really want to be Hokage.’”

There’s a slight pause. “And Naruto, he started hyperventilating because that’s a lot of pressure. He’s just a kid, and that’s his friend, you know? He really cared for him. And all anyone was telling him was that he needed to handle it, to take him down. Nobody ever asked him how he felt...” He answers my next question before I can ask it. “It’s been a lot. I can sit here and explain it, but nobody will really be able to feel it the way I did. My foot was broken and I couldn’t magically heal it. It hurt, because I love the game of basketball. But because of it I was experiencing hate and pain from people I don’t know every day, and it started to wear on me.”

After the worst of his rehabilitation—the part that came with a general lack of mobility—Williamson got to work. He brought on a personal trainer, Jasper Bibbs, and MasterChef alum Christian Green to manage his nutrition. The results speak for themselves. Videos of Williamson dunking during Pelicans practice began to circulate over the summer, as did photos of a dramatic change in physique that can only be described—heavy-handed as it may be—as Super Saiyan. True to shonen form, Jordan Brand even launched his upcoming Zion 2 signature sneaker with a training montage that would make Naruto proud. A couple of days after Comic-Con he makes a surprise appearance at day one of the Zion Skills Academy youth basketball camp in downtown Los Angeles and moves up and down the court with ease. The only time he looks even remotely uncomfortable is when, after being asked his favorite cartoon and mentioning Naruto, a handful of kids who barely reach his knee start booing. He laughs it off.

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Whole thing is interesting, though a bit cringey at times for someone that doesn't really "get" anime, but you get the impression of how much of a big kid Zion is at heart, how he is a bit nerdish, a bit more introverted and family orientated than the common image seems to be. Also how much he is really focusing in on trying to get his body right.