Video: Zion Williamson Takes It To LeBron James

What a spectacular performance by the former Duke star

Watching a healthy Zion Williamson in the NBA can be hypnotic, especially if he’s having one of those Zion-type games we saw at Duke, and he had one of those against LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers Friday night.

L.A. won 139-122 but Williamson’s highlights were electrifying and one aspect of this game was really striking.

When Williamson was a rookie, he was not fully confident going at James.

Now?

There’s no question who’s the more dominant athlete.

If you watch closely, when Williamson drives on James, often James doesn’t even contest him. And when he does, Williamson just soars higher than he can go.

They called a goal tend on a block Williamson had on James and that was probably the right call, but even so: damn, was it breathtaking.

In fairness to James, Williamson is 23 and James is 39 and while James has kept his game phenomenally sharp as he approaches 40, time is undefeated. As you can see in these highlights, he’s not nearly as explosive as he was a few years ago.

But he’s still a brilliant player and he finished this game with 14 assists. James is the NBA’s all-time leading scorer with close to 40,000 points, which is incredible. But here’s the kicker: he’s also fourth all-time in assists.

However, while he might move up slightly on that list, he’s got virtually no chance of catching up to John Stockton, who holds the record with 15,806. That puts James - who has 10,778 assists - 5,028 assists behind the leader. At his current rate of 7.6 assists per game, it would take James 661 games to catch Stockton. Even if the Lakers averaged 100 games a year, it would take James until he was 46 to get close to Stockton.