MIAMI _ Justise Winslow was watching in anticipation of a blowout.
Forgive the Duke arrogance, but there has been plenty of reason this season for that type of thinking.
The Miami Heat playmaker and former Blue Devils national champion got one, as he took in ESPN's Wednesday broadcast of Duke-North Carolina. The 88-72 loss to the Tar Heels just wasn't the type of blowout Winslow was anticipating.
Instead, it was sneaker going one way and Zion Williamson the other, the Duke forward and presumptive NBA No. 1 draft pick fortunate to emerge with nothing worse than a minor, Grade 1 knee sprain in the wake of his early exit.
And yet, with that one moment in time, Winslow knew Williamson leaving the court was bigger than that single moment.
"Some stuff is going to change because of Zion," Winslow said was his thought.
And, apparently, it already is, with the NBA and the league's players association moving closer to dropping any type of college requirement for high school seniors, a move likely to come as soon as the 2022 draft.
For Winslow, the Duke experience was rewarding on both a championship level and the opportunity to lift his NBA draft stock. For Williamson, like LeBron James and other prep-to-pros success stories in earlier NBA times, the body, the game, the skills were NBA ready coming out of high school.
"I think guys should definitely have the right to make that decision," Winslow said, with all due respect for what Mike Krzyzewski did for his career in that single 2014-15 season in Durham. "Guys should have the decision to come straight out of high school."
For all the physicality of the NBA, this is not the NFL. Williamson already has an NBA physique, as certainly does LSU's Naz Reid.
Having been part of the 2003 NBA draft when James made his successful preps-to-pros leap, Heat guard Dwyane Wade has long held that 18, or even younger, should be an NBA age of consent.
"I think guys should be able to come out, period," he said in the wake of Williamson's blowout. "I think a situation like that can occur at any time, can occur at practice, it can occur when you're working out. It can occur anytime. So I don't think that's the biggest thing.
"I just think the rule should be that if a guy, if he's good enough to come out at 18, at 17, he should be able to. Just like other sports and other things in the world, you're able to go to the war early. So I feel like you should be able to, even forgetting things like injuries."
Heat center Bam Adebayo, who came from humble roots and parlayed his lone season at Kentucky into his first-round Heat selection in 2017, said he continues to have mixed feelings on the issue, appreciative of his season under John Calipari.
"I had fun in my one year in college," he said. "I mean it's a good experience. It got me ready for the NBA.
"And I got better in my one year, and Zion is, too."
Still, at the moment, and in the moment, Winslow said he appreciates how quickly it all can be taken away, even with an insurance policy in place to somewhat mitigate against NCAA injury.
"In the moment, I thought it was the shoe," Winslow said. "And in the moment, I thought he was going to get right back up. But once I kind of saw him going off, I said, 'Oh, man, this is going to be big for basketball.' That's when I thought stuff is going to change."
