In the dying minutes of Duke’s 91-61 drubbing of St. John’s, ESPN’s Allison Williams took the time to speak to the mom of Blue Devils standout Zion Williamson, Sharonda Sampson. The interview went through an expected array of topics—Williamson’s burning desire to win, the athleticism he had as a child and whether he’s been able to remain humble while in the national spotlight—but resulted in a fun revelation about the two’s favorite activity to do together: watch Naruto.


Here’s a transcript of the interview:

Williams: “Tell us something a little bit about Zion Williamson we don’t know that only mama knows﻿ but maybe we should know about your son?”

Sampson: “He’s a mama’s boy and when we get time alone he’ll come over and we’ll watch the cartoon called Naruto. I don’t know what that is, but we’ll sit around and we’ll watch that. So, yeah, you don’t know that about him.”


It’s amazing to think that there’s a chance Zion is playing different variations of the Naruto theme music in his head as he’s getting ready to throw down another gravity-defying dunk like this:

Now all that’s left to do is for someone to ask him which character from the show would be the best teammate in basketball. My guess is Rock Lee because of his grit and work ethic.