Pelicans to rebuild on Zion

Duke’s Zion Williamson, right, poses for photographs with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver after being selected by the New Orleans Pelicans as the first pick during the NBA basketball draft Thursday, June 20, 2019, in New York. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

NEW YORK—Zion Williamson plays with force and ferocity, a Hulk in hightops who looks as though he’d never show a soft side.

Draft night proved otherwise.

Williamson was the No. 1 pick of the New Orleans Pelicans—a surprise to nobody who watched basketball this past season. But afterward he couldn’t hide his emotions, even though he, along with everyone else, knew what would happen on Thursday night.

“Because I love the game of basketball,” he said. “You can hear people say things like, ‘Oh, that it was likely I was going to go No. 1.’ But I guess you don’t know until you actually go through it. Hearing my name called and I was able to make it on stage without a tear, shake the commissioner’s hand, but in the interview my mom was standing beside me, and my emotions just took over.”

There might be tears of joy in New Orleans, too, after the Pelicans were able to get a cornerstone for a rebuild now that the team will move forward from former franchise player Athony Davis, who was traded to the Lakers.

The 6-foot-7, 285-pounder compiled a college career worth of highlights into just one season, becoming the third freshman to be voted player of the year by The Associated Press.

His assault on the rims made him a favorite of college basketball fans, but his game is more than just dunks. Williamson averaged 22.6 points and 8.9 rebounds on 68 percent shooting.

The Memphis Grizzlies also quickly addressed a positional need by taking Murray State’s Ja Morant with the No. 2 pick. The Grizzlies agreed to trade Mike Conley, their longtime point guard, to Utah a day earlier.

They got a good replacement in Morant, who led Division I with 10 assists per game as a sophomore while averaging 24.5 points.

RJ Barrett then made it two Duke freshmen within the top-three picks when the New York Knicks took the guard who actually edged out Williamson to lead the Atlantic Coast Conference in scoring. Knicks fans hoped they would get Williamson after finishing with the worst record in the league but seemed happy to end up with Barrett, loudly cheering and chanting “RJ! RJ!” when the pick was announced.

Rui Hachimura became the first player from Japan to get chosen in the first round of the NBA draft, taken with the No. 9 overall pick by the rebuilding Washington Wizards.

The 6-foot-8, 235-pound forward averaged a team-leading 19.7 points and 6.5 rebounds last season as a junior at Gonzaga.

“It means a lot for me, for my family,” Hachimura said. “For Japan basketball, all my country, it’s a big thing.”

Former first-round prospect Bol Bol, meanwhile, waited a long while before he was finally drafted.

The son of legend Manute Bol waited until Miami picked him with the 44th overall pick.

Not that Bol is heading to South Beach. Nope, the Heat traded his draft rights to the Denver Nuggets in exchange for a future second-round pick and financial considerations. —AP