NBA: And1 Streetballer Slams Zion Williamson, LeBron James Comparisons

And1 streetball star Grayson “The Professor” Boucher shut down Zion Williamson and LeBron James comparisons.

James and Williamson both quickly emerged as NBA stars before they even set foot inside the basketball court. Much of it could be blamed to the media, but both players are evidently attracting attention because of their high-flying in-game dunks. However, many still believe that Williamson could be on his way to following the legacy of “King James.” But for And1 streetballer Boucher that is not how Williamson could establish his name in the NBA.

In a recent interview with Fanatics View, Boucher weighed in on Williamson’s game and how he could possibly become the superstar he is expected to be. According to the dribbling wizard, instead of living up the hype caused by comparisons with James, Williamson has to be more like Blake Griffin.

Boucher emphasized that Williamson has to improve his mid-range shots and handles overtime, which was exactly what happened to Griffin’s career.

“I think that has to happen (for Zion) to be the superstar that everybody wants him to be,” Boucher said.

As for the comparisons with James, Boucher thinks that it is unfair for Williamson, who is obviously a different type of beast compared to James.

“I think there’s unfair expectations attached to him right now. They’re already comparing him to LeBron James, it’s too much. LeBron is 6’9”, he’s not even the same player. Why? Cause they’re both kind of big and they both can dunk? To me they don’t have a lot of similarities,” he pointed out.

The Professor isn’t the only one who thinks it is not fair to link Williamson to James at this stage of his career. In fact, even New Orleans Pelicans head coach Alvin Gentry has insisted that people shouldn’t compare James to Williamson as the rookie has been working hard towards building his own name. According to Gentry, comparing his player to other stars wouldn’t help the process at all.

"They shouldn't do that [comparing]. We are not doing that. We are comparing Zion to Zion. We want Zion to be the best Zion Williamson that he can be. Not anybody else. We want him to be the best basketball player he can become using his name and no comparison. I know that it's inevitable that that's going to be the case, but we are not drinking that Kool-Aid," Gentry exclaimed.

Williamson is already a promising NBA rising star. In his first 19 games, he already averaged 23.6 points per game.