In a current article on GQ, New Orleans Pelicans star Zion Williamson opens up about his love for Naruto, to the purpose the place it finally ends up being the focus for your complete function.

If you suppose I’m joking, solely two paragraphs in we’re seeing stuff like:

Williamson talks about Naruto with the identical reverence with which different NBA gamers discuss concerning the Bible—it brings consolation and readability in equal components. Over the course of this previous 12 months—an unusually tumultuous one in his in any other case starry profession—Naruto was his north star.

That “tumultuous” 12 months is one during which Williamson was injured, couldn’t get higher, placed on a great deal of weight and consistently had his future in New Orleans (and within the league itself) questioned. It’s clear that Zion actually loves Naruto, to the purpose the place he turned as much as a Comic-Con panel carrying a Hokage gown, and the actual fact he offers it a lot credit score in serving to him get better and prepare for the upcoming season.

What actually acquired my consideration within the function, although, is that this (emphasis mine):

Zion estimates that round 80% of gamers within the league are into anime; they simply received’t admit it. Those acquainted with the conventions of the shape know that it could be exhausting to craft a style higher suited to skilled athletes: Shōnen anime (the time period for reveals focused at boys) typically revolve round a protagonist striving to attain greatness of their chosen area, be it excessive seas piracy (One Piece) or combating alien warlords utilizing power blasts so highly effective they flip your hair gold (Dragon Ball Z). They’re long-form tales about what it takes to be The Best—not by the way, the identical purpose that drives athletes.

That statistic is each wild and in addition utterly plausible. Most NBA gamers are of their 20s, which means they’ve grown up in a tradition the place anime has lengthy outgrown its (typically unfair) weeaboo associations, and the place Japanese collection like DragonBall Z aren’t simply a part of the furnishings, however particularly resonate with younger black males, who make up many of the league.

Now, I’m not going to say Zion is the one NBA participant who has made public their love of anime. Here’s Steven Adams in 2016:

And much more famously, right here’s famous person Joel Embiid in 2018 enjoyable throughout his pre-game routine:

And that’s earlier than we get into the small-but-important lineup of gamers who have gone on the document to speak about their love for Dragon Ball Z, like Embiid’s teammate Tobias Harris and Cavs ahead Lauri Markkanen.

But if Zion’s 80% determine is even remotely true—he’s coming into his third season within the league, he’s been in sufficient locker room and coaching courtroom discussions to no less than have the ability to make an excellent guess—then there needs to be masses extra of this. There are 450 gamers within the NBA, which might put the variety of anime followers within the a whole lot, not the handfuls. We might and perhaps needs to be seeing extra stuff like pre-game dance routines, post-game interview quotes from Slam Dunk and gamers with nicknames from Kill la Kill as an alternative of outdated DC comics.

Maybe many gamers really feel there’s nonetheless some form of stigma connected to it, that it could make them look nerdy, and by (outdated and incorrect) affiliation, weak. But shit, if Zion and Joel Embiid—two of the largest, meanest guys within the NBA—could be out right here like this, then anybody can.