WHAT HAPPENED TO THE KID WHO GUARDED ZION

Where are they now? The 5'5 8th grader who went viral for trying to guard Zion Williamson in high school, Bryson Bishop. In 2017, Bryson Bishop checked into a varsity game as a skinny 13 year old kid to match up against the most powerful high school basketball player we have ever seen. That moment went viral and Bryson became known as the kid who guarded Zion Williamson. It has been almost 6 years since this took place and most people have completely forgotten about him. But a lot has happened in his life and basketball career since the original moment of fame, including reuniting with Zion. In this video, I will be talking about Bryson's extremely successful high school career, touch on what has happened to him so far in collegiate basketball, and discuss the encounter he had with Zion. Going into that legendary game, Bryson's entire team expected a loss against Zion's squad. Well everyone except Bryson, he was just excited to go out there and compete on varsity as an 8th grader. As one might assume, there was a ton of hype around this game at his school. Some players were even saying they wanted to get dunked on just to go viral. But Bryson went in with the mentality to put everything on the court in this game. And he wanted that matchup against Zion. This was proved to be the case because the second Bryson checked into the game, he immediately walked over to Zion and started clapping in his face. The game plan here was to run a box in 1 on defense, putting Bryson on Zion to pester him. And to everyone's surprise, this actually seemed to work as he got into Zion's head and forced a missed shot out of him. Not only that, he connected on 3 triples and brought a ton of needed energy to his team. The fact that a 13-year-old kid was able to have impact in a varsity game while guarding a future NBA star is beyond impressive. Bryson didn't expect anything to come out of this game, but to his surprise, footage of him blew up on social media. The video posted by Hoop Diamonds on YouTube has just under 7 million views alone. After his short moment of fame, Bryson really fell out of the spotlight and most people completely forgot about him. But like I mentioned earlier, Bryson went on to have a very successful high school basketball career. After he finished up middle school, Bryson was deciding between a few high schools, trying to figure out the best option for his development. Funny enough, one of the schools he was considering was Spartanburg Day School, which is where Zion attended. He had the opportunity to team up with the number 1 ranked player in the country for a season, playing on a team that was fresh off a state title. But Bryson didn't let that influence his decision, and he stayed focused on what was best for him in the long term. After giving it a lot of thought, he truly believed attending Spartanburg Christian Academy was the best move. And that is where he played all 4 years in high school. During his freshman year, he grew to 5 foot 9 and his game continued to improve. Bryson was the second option in his first year of high school, playing alongside current D2 point guard Christian Kincaid. But once he became that number 1 option in his sophomore year, there was a significant jump in his game. Bryson stepped into a huge leadership role as the starting point guard and put in a ton of effort learning every facet of the game. He became a better passer, shooter, defender, playmaker, the list goes on and on. While there was a significant jump in Bryson's individual game, he had his eyes set on something much bigger, a state championship. During his sophomore year, Bryson was at his school's state championship volleyball game. The gym was packed, the atmosphere was electric, and he saw how much it really meant to the school for them to make it this far. They ended up winning that state title game, and afterwards, he went up to his coach and said, we will be standing here with 100% confidence behind what he was saying. So going into his junior year, Bryson was playing with a huge goal in mind that he knew could be accomplished if he put in enough effort. Bryson picked up in his junior year right where he left off, averaging 20-5 during the regular season. This was also the year when Bryson surpassed 1000 career points, an incredible milestone. But the individual accolades were just not enough for him, he was hungry to lead his team to a state title. Well, Spartanburg Christian Academy ended up going on a massive playoff run and made it all the way to the championship. And Bryson proved he was well prepared for this moment because he led his Warriors to a 2A state title, finishing with a game high 16 points. But Bryson did not want to stop there, he was looking to go back to back. Going into his final year of high school, Bryson transformed into a 6 foot sharpshooting point guard who averaged 21-5 a night. And after another successful regular season in his senior year, he found his way back to the championship game yet again. They were facing off against Dylan Christian, who had a game plan to put as much pressure as they possibly could on Bryson in this game. They face guarded him practically the entire time and tried just about everything in the book to slow him down. But these efforts just did not work because Bryson used this pressure to open up his teammates and created a ton of offense. And he still managed to drop a game high 23 points, leading his guys to another state championship. Capping off his senior season in the best way possible. One would think that all of this success would result in a ton of college interest, but Bryson was actually under recruited. He actually had 0 offers going into his senior year and it was towards the end of his final season in high school when he picked up a few. Keep in mind, this is a guy who led his team to 2 state championships and averaged 20-5 in his junior and senior season. Bryson definitely should have had more offers, but out of all of his options, he decided to go with the smaller division 1 school in his hometown, Charleston Southern University. Which is where he was going to play this past season, but once he arrived on campus and started practicing, he realized it wasn't going to be a good fit. The team didn't pair with Bryson's playstyle at all, so he decided to redshirt to save a year of eligibility. After many talks with college coaches, he transferred to Birmingham Southern College, which is where he'll be playing this upcoming season. Now this is a division 3 school, but the way the team plays and how badly they wanted him is what really drew Bryson in. They have a run and gun, shoot the 3 ball offense, which is exactly the type of system Bryson wanted to be in during his collegiate career. He definitely had the opportunity to stick with division 1 basketball, but he didn't want to sacrifice his happiness for somewhere that he knew wasn't the right fit. Just like he chose to not play with Zion, I think he is making another right choice for his long term development. And while he might not have ever played with Zion, this past week we saw the two reunite before a Pelicans preseason game. The whole interaction was super wholesome and it just really shows Zion's character. A lot of NBA players would have just brushed off an encounter like this. But Zion remembered Bryson and gave him high praise for what he did in that game on JJ Reddick's podcast. They haven't been in touch for years and the fact that Zion picked things up like they were best friends meant the entire world to Bryson. Besides this encounter, we haven't really seen Bryson in the media recently. But that will likely change when he is back on the basketball court this season at Birmingham Southern. Bryson has been putting in a ton of work during his gap year to get his body and mind ready for this upcoming season. His ultimate end goal is to make it to the professional level and I think that's a real possibility if he continues to put in the extra effort. Whether he is playing overseas or in an NBA jersey against Zion, I'm hoping to see Bryson play professionally because I know he can make it there. Make sure you check out the Where Are They Now video we did on 11 year old prodigy Jayshon Augusto. Because if you like this video, you will love that one. As always, thank you so much for watching. We will see you in the next one.