Williamson, the star freshman basketball player, could be jeopardizing his career for the glory of a university, Duke, and a company, Nike, that are profiting from his free labor.
A freak injury to Duke’s Zion Williamson, college basketball’s best and most prominent player, only seconds into a game on Wednesday night has instantaneously renewed a debate about the contradictions of the sport’s economic foundation, shining a harsh new light on the N. C. A. A.’s policy of amateurism and the influence of billion-dollar shoe companies.
It also raised an important question: Should Williamson ever suit up for another college game?
Fans were asking the question. An N. B. A. player was, too, even before Duke announced that Williamson had sustained a sprained knee in the fall.
“It’s a legitimate question,” said Ramogi Huma, the founder and president of the College Athletes Players Association, an advocate for players’ rights.
In the first minute of top-ranked Duke’s game against its archrival, eighth-ranked North Carolina, Williamson, a 6-foot-9,280-pound forward whose game is a blend of quickness and power, pivoted with the ball near the free-throw line. As he planted a foot to reverse direction, his left sneaker collapsed and tore apart from the sheer torque of the move.
Williamson fell backward in a split, grabbing his right knee. He walked off the court, and did not return. Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski said afterward that Williamson had sustained a knee injury, but that the joint was “stable.”
Pending further testing, the general sense is that Williamson — and Duke, and Nike, which made the shoe — had avoided the worst. Williamson, widely considered the nation’s best college player, is expected to be available to Duke in time for its conference tournament or, at worst, the N. C. A. tournament, which begins in a month.
That is, should Williamson elect to return.
Huma cited the example of a top football player who found himself with a more serious injury a few years ago; that player elected to end his college career prematurely, to limit his risk — and his potential professional payday. “To continue to risk his future in an unjust system that doesn’t allow him to be compensated just doesn’t make sense,” Huma said.
The math behind the argument against Williamson’s returning is simple. Per N. C. A. rules, Duke is not compensating Williamson, an 18-year-old freshman, beyond a scholarship and the related costs of studying at, and playing for, the university.
