Zion Williamson, NBA’s Rising Stars awestruck by meeting former President Obama

A special guest in Chicago for the NBA All-Star Weekend: former US President Barack Obama. 

Obama showed up for an NBA Cares event in between Rising Stars practices on Friday morning. NBA players from the USA and World teams put on red T-shirts and assisted young students from local schools in filling 500 backpacks with colored pencils, markers, notebooks and other school supplies for under-resourced students and teachers. Roughly 15 minutes into the event, Obama showed up. Most of the players and children had no idea he would be attending. He weaved his way around the room and introduced himself to every player, student, volunteer and coach.

Pelicans rookie Zion Williamson has said his meeting with Obama was one of his top life experiences: "This could be No. 1, I don’t want to say it is No. 1 right now because the draft might be 1, but this is definitely top two.".

Obama chatted for roughly 20 minutes with Williamson and Atlanta Hawks All Star Trae Young: “It was crazy being able to stand next to him, talk to him,” Young said. “He basically knew everything about my season, my game. I was definitely asking him a lot of questions. He was just like a regular person — that’s what was crazy. You see all these things on TV and you don’t even realize. He was just talking to me like a regular person.”