Duke freshmen vs. Fab Five: How Zion Williamson's squad compares on & off court | College Basketball

this class of Duke freshmen has been unfathomably good look out these brothers look special oh my god but they're not the first group of fabulous freshmen that we have ever seen [Music] there were five kids in Michigan once that were decades ahead of their time [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] we've been following dudes freshman class for years now even if we didn't know it Sian Williamson dunked a viral stardom as a high school junior their doors the Phenom developed into the number two prospect in the 2018 ESPN 100 fact the only player that was ranked ahead of them was future teammate RJ Barrett the Canadian scoring machine who absolutely balled out for his home country and then dominated his senior season rounding out the top three in that class was cam reddish a six foot eight sharpshooter who surprised also made his way to Durham listen this embarrassment of riches would be enough for any class but Duke also nabbed number 17 prospect Trey Jones as a lead guard who could not only distribute but the man can get buckets and oh yeah then there's Joey Baker the 41st best freshman in the nation who has yet to play a regular-season minute for the Blue Devils but much like 2018 the player that you probably know best from the Fab five wasn't the highest ranked player on his own team back then Chris Webber was actually hoop scoops number four player in that class and big man Juwan Howard was number three number nine well future ESPN analyst Jalen Rose show us some those youthful hops high flyer Jimmy King at number 17 and blue guy ray Jackson at number 79 rounded things out for the Fab five to compare them each class had four McDonald's all-americans and the similarities don't stop there Sian Williamson is a generational changing afternoon however with Chris Webber came out of high school everything that we're saying about him was sad about Chris Webber yeah but those were to understand that a left-handed number five well I'll remember one of those he's definitely gonna be a big-time scorer in college I just have to mention myself because I'm that vain your friend in mind mr. Rose told me that Sian Williamson would not have started for the Fab five your thoughts what oh please don't tell me that sue did you say this ain't starting over JaJuan you want to start them at the five he's starting over C where C where no doubt okay touch it him Juwan Howard underestimated totally hit the ball you're really good you gonna tell me Jimmy King a breakdown because sure I'm not finished Zion Williams they can't play shooting guard they want shooters they will play it stop it so that's pretty much where the comparisons stop for these two groups with one notable exception at least for now they each have a very clear fifth wheel it was extremely talked in the fifth wheel another five five you gotta remember I came from Texas well I was one of the top kids in the state those times I wish I don't want somewhere completely different ray Jackson season started with way more veg time than he would have liked which Joey Baker can surely empathize with but it didn't in that way Jackson ultimately cracked the starting lineup in his freshman season but Baker his biggest highlight from his true freshman year will be dunking all over RJ Barrett in practice they changed the way college basketball look prior to that he had players staying a lot longer so you had juniors and seniors on teams who were stars no freshmen in the in the country were good enough to start I think you know I mean as far as the whole team so that was transcendent we were playing mostly juniors and seniors we started five freshmen so really is an apples and or thing I want to make another thing clear to Michigan and Duke have been linked for decades and the Fab five as a whole has a lot to do with that I hated Duke and I hated everything I felt Duke stood for I hated Duke Duke was like America's team and Christian Laettner was like God and I did not like him they worried me a little bit I wouldn't say I was scared but they worried me a little bit because they're freshmen and they are real loosey-goosey and out there having a good time 20-point win 71 to 51 we felt that we were more of a team it wasn't five of us it was 12 of us we get it this rivalry it's a bit personal but it's not like we can transport either of these dueling freshman classes to play against one another so how do we settle this Las Vegas has instituted a hypothetical line on a hypothetical game between these freshmen and these freshmen and they say the kids at Duke would be something in the neighborhood of a seven-point favorite mr. Rose your reaction first off is a 45 year old man there's nothing I could say well people did not say oh he's bitter or he's jealous and burries hating like I'm unhappy with my life as a competitor of course I feel like we would have won the bigger comparison probably would be could this do team actually beat the Duke team that we lost to in the championship game the Fab five the most culturally influential college basketball team of its era I think in a cultural sense that represented homeboys in the home groups hip-hop was coming into his own thing we all loved hip-hop we just wanted to have our own style music you listening to to get you in the mood for this game warning dr. Dre EPM DS greatest hits college athletes in the early 90s didn't have tattoos plan for major college programs if you had a tattoo you was considered a thug if you had an earring you was considered a hoodlum I had both and I played at Michigan and I had a ball head just will happen to have black shoes black socks and long shorts before the Fab five you know dudes was wearing panties out there when Jalen initiated the baggagewhores we were tighter than those shorts they were definitely the first people that I've seen wear black socks in the basketball game there was something that nobody did but it looked pretty stylish whatever Nike wanted to sell they threw it on the fan five and we went downtown without Nike outlet and we walked past the display it's a Fab five Nikes the whole nation is gravitated around these players when we got off a bus we'd have to cordon off an area so we could just get to the locker room before the game come on we had I have 24-hour security for a college basketball team look it's nearly impossible for the new devils to even approach the cultural relevance of the fad 5rj Barrett did find himself on a slam cover before he played a game in college well that's big hey about the earrings but Drake rocking a Zion Jersey before the kid even turned 18 and reppin fellow Canadian Barrett is worth like an absurd amount of cultural points texting Hilu texting each other quite a bit and it's far from just Drizzy this tracking Zions moves on IG he's following is an inconceivable two million-plus strong Chris Brown Peters Chanda James dak Prescott GPA and yet the Fab five have a very famous fan trump card Muhammad Ali fan of ours and we're gonna get a chance to meet him he knows our names he knows about ball he's talking to us about being confident and cocky is shocking the world the Fab five changed the game forever at a time when the game was completely different from what it is now all five freshmen think they're going to start but it won't happen and now freshman sensations are no big deal our legacy is that we were bigger than the score of the game that legacy is here to stay yes going anywhere you care think of Michigan without thinking of the Fab five and I'm probably something you might not remember the Fab Five did lose eight games in the regular season and we're just a succeed in the tourney if this Duke team loses any game it is major breaking news Gonzaga beats a number one team for the first time in program history Duke fans just cut it out man these kids aren't perfect and if you don't like following them then don't follow us the story of the 2018-19 Duke freshman is still being written it's mythology might only grow once these stars move on to the NBA and even if they never reshape basketball and pop culture like the Fab five did the new devil should feel proud for even being mentioned in the same as those basketball icons we're starting a journey where do we want to end we want to end in April and we want to be accepting a national championship trophy [Music]

Channel: ESPN

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Id: gOQjbZgcisA

Length: 9min 56sec (596 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 18 2018