Duke Basketball: Zion Williamson did not dunk from “beyond” FT line

While many are caught up by the hype and reporting that Duke basketball freshman Zion Williamson dunked from beyond the free throw line during practice on Tuesday, the tape suggests otherwise.

It’s time for basketball junkies to come back down to earth. What Duke basketball freshman Zion Williamson did during a practice session in Canada on Tuesday is nothing that hasn’t been done by countless others going back decades.

Simply put, his foot was on the line.

And so was the foot of Michael Jordan when he tried several times to dunk from beyond the charity stripe during contests in the 1980s.

The same goes for Julius Erving, Clyde Drexler, and just about any other of history’s most famous dunkers. Just check the tapes to see for yourself.

Despite the facts, though, The Chronicle went as far as to describe Williamson’s dunk by claiming the “freshman soared from beyond the free-throw line and slammed it home.”

What video is everyone else watching?

https://twitter.com/DukeMBB/status/1029404577903337472

Countless other news sites are exaggerating the dunk by claiming Williamson “made it look easy.” If it was so easy, then why didn’t he just do it without his shoe touching the line?

And here’s an even better question: why is head coach Mike Krzyzewski allowing his freshmen to waste valuable practice time (R.J. Barrett also tried an attempt with his entire foot well over the free throw line) and to risk injury by showing off?

After all, two of them — Tre Jones and Cam Reddish — are already being held out due to injuries for three upcoming games in Duke’s Canada Tour (starting Wednesday at 7 p.m. EST against Ryerson on ESPN+).

Sure, Williamson is obviously a freak of nature. There is no doubt that the 6-foot-7, 285-pound beast of a man will be the most explosive athlete in the history of Duke basketball.

However, I’d rather see him practice his actual free throws than to waste time showing off what YouTube viewers have already known about him for years.

I get it: Williamson can throw down thunderous dunks. But how good is he at winning?

It’s time for Duke basketball players to stop trying to impress NBA fans and start focusing on doing what it takes to win more NCAA games and to cut down the nets in Minneapolis in April.

And if Williamson does miss a dunk attempt from the free throw line during an actual game and Coach K does not respond by going ballistic, then I would begin to wonder what happened to the Coach K who cared more about winning than looking cool to future prospects.

Finally, if we’re going to talk about dunking from beyond the free throw line, then we should just be talking about the one man who actually did do it with ease and without his foot touching the line. His name is Michael Conley Sr.

The former Olympic gold medalist in the triple jump took off from about six inches behind the free throw line at the Foot Locker Celebrity Dunk Contest in 1992. And Conley’s slam really did look easy. Just Google it.

But Williamson and his coaches at Duke should pay attention to this nugget: despite Conley’s insane ability to jump and to raise a son who ended up in the NBA, his own basketball career ended after just one season at Arkansas.

In other words, there is far more to basketball than being able to amaze people on Twitter by dunking from the free throw line (whether the foot actually touches the line or not).