Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • It's finally Zion time.

  • He makes his long awaited eh NBA debut tonight.

  • New Orleans against the Spurs.

  • Of course, he had surgery on October 21st repair than the meniscus in his right knee.

  • He spoke Tuesday about his recovery process.

  • There was a lot of times, and I just want to punch a wall or kick chairs because it's frustrating not being able to move your body the way you want to make any athletic movements.

  • I mean, it's tough.

  • I've been working on my landing a lot, not landing straight legs, letting my don't let him.

  • All my forces go into my legs on taking stuff.

  • I really couldn't explain it to you.

  • To be honest, I honestly don't know.

  • For me, get sleeping would be too excited.

  • Thinking about my first nb again.

  • Yeah, the excitement's undeniable for all of us.

  • But J.

  • Rose, when you hear Zion talking about reinventing the way that he's gonna land doing these technical things to try to prevent injury, what comes to mind for you?

  • Longevity.

  • You want this young man to preserve himself as much as possible, and I'm really enthusiastic he's gonna make his dynamic debut tonight and the other thing that's happened in the New Orleans is this.

  • Allow Brandon Ingram to ascend.

  • Now, all of a sudden they have a dynamic duel with a guy that's averaging 25 plus points, playing at All Star level.

  • Now you get the number one overall pick returning to your lineup four games out of the eighth spot.

  • J will feels like they have what it takes to make the playoffs.

  • I don't think so, because they have too many teams to leapfrog.

  • But it's great for the league.

  • Designers return.

  • No, I think it's amazing, and I love what he talks about about changing his landing.

  • There are simple things that you can do hanging on the rim a little bit more, and not just all the sexy, you know, when you go straight down and you're just trying to show off a little bit.

  • So when he's talking about, like here, Sorry, Frank Kaminsky has to be the example, But here I land.

  • I could hold onto the rim here.

  • Yes, Brian Clark's upset that I get to use myself in the highlight, but that's what happens as a basketball right, But that one leg right there.

  • My leg was throbbing for days afterwards.

  • In that moment, J Is this realistic that he can make this change on the fly.

  • When you're out there on the court, you're trying to make plays.

  • You're gonna be able to think in your head.

  • I'm gonna land a different way in real time.

  • It's gonna be very challenging.

  • It's gonna be arduous for him.

  • And look, this is a team has a six fastest pace in the NBA.

  • And let's not let's not forget that Zahn gets a lot of these points in transition and off getting rebounds, right?

  • Things that require him to be athletically gifted the way he is.

  • So he has a chance to be in compromising positions.

  • You hope that he gets lucky enough not to get injured.

  • The rest.

  • But here's what I love about Zion that I don't want people to overlook.

  • He's going to do all of the hustle, plays this field.

  • You're gonna get blocked shots.

  • He's gonna be unenthusiastic teammate.

  • He's going to be an exciting player for a long time.

  • Yeah, and to your longevity point, there are things that you can do but the number one thing forget training and to forget how you land.

  • You gotta lose weight.

  • He's got to slim down.

  • That's got to be his primary focus from the day he wakes up.

  • Our from the moment he wakes up to the moment he goes.

  • And Ryan Clark dunks like that all the time.

  • Just on four foot rooms.

  • Yeah, well, for maybe 3.5 way.

  • That's why these women, that thriller jacket minus zippers and you know back to basics growing up with that jacket over there.

  • Thank you for watching ESPN on YouTube.

  • For more sports and analysis, download the ESPN app for live streaming sports and premium content.

  • Subscribed to ESPN plus right now.

It's finally Zion time.

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it