Knicks’ Immanuel Quickley Reveals He Tried Recruiting Zion Williamson

Zion Williamson is one of the NBA’s brightest young stars. Long before he joined the NBA, Zion was making waves in the basketball world with his play in high school and in college with Duke.

Zion went to the New Orleans Pelicans as the number one overall pick in the 2019 NBA draft and had many expectations coming into the league. But due to injury problems, Williamson could not play many games during the season. Williamson lost out the Rookie of the Year to Ja Morant. However, the future is bright for Williamson with New Orleans.

Williamson’s friend and former roommate Immanuel Quickley gave an interview to the New York Post. Quickley signed with the New York Knicks during the 2020 NBA Draft.

When asked about how he met Zion Williamson, Quickley revealed that the two traveled the world playing basketball together and said, “Through Adidas. We played on the same AAU circuit, and we went to a whole bunch of different places — Italy, Spain I think and Aruba — and he was my roommate for all of those trips.”

Quickley revealed that Zion was a laid-back individual who did not let get fame get to him. He said, “He’s definitely cool. I haven’t seen him in two years, so I don’t know how he’s changed, but he was just laid back. … You wouldn’t know that he had a million followers on Instagram.”

Quickley talks about relationship with Zion Williamson

When asked whether Quickley thought he could have gotten Williamson to join Kentucky State, he responded, “I thought I was, yeah.”

Quickley revealed that while he and Zion are not close anymore, there were no hard feelings about Zion not joining him at Kentucky State. He said, “Obviously not close enough, ’cause he went to Duke. But hey, that’s his decision. It worked out for him — he went No. 1 overall, so I can’t fault him.”

For Quickley and Zion, being roommates brought them together. Zion was very funny, according to Quickley, who said, “I guess we were 18 at the time. … He was just goofy, like I don’t know (smile). Watched cartoons and things like that.”

Quickley revealed that what made Zion play the way he does is that his game is very well rounded. He can do everything on the court. He said, “Most people think he’s just a dunker, but he can pass, dribble, can shoot a little bit, obviously really athletic, plays defense, plays hard and he’s a great teammate.”

Quickley and Zion will have a short reunion when the Knicks play Williamson and the New Orleans Pelicans for the new NBA season. It will be interesting to see their new reactions to each other.