United stars up to the challenge of stopping Zion

With only two sleeps until our matchup with the New Orleans Pelicans at Rod Laver Arena, Dean Vickerman has touched on his anticipation to see his lineup battle with the collection of NBA stars.

Speaking at the NBAxNBL Melbourne Series Press Conference this afternoon at Courtside Melbourne, Vickerman spoke about the significance of the contest, and how his players plan to slow down superstar forward Zion Williamson.

“Our guys are looking forward to it,” Vickerman said.

“In scout today, guys were talking about matching up on him and how we try to slow him down and contain him in any way. It’s a great challenge.

“To have this opportunity, it’s going to be the best basketball experience for so many of our players, and our coaching staff is all from Victoria, so to have the opportunity to play this game (is great).

“As you get a little older, the firsts don’t come around as often so to be the first game in our state and in Melbourne, we’re super excited about it.”

Williamson, who has averaged close to 25 points per game across 214 NBA appearances, has played alongside Australians such as former United forward Jack White and recent NBA Most Improved Player Award winner Dyson Daniels; older brother of Dash Daniels.

The talented scorer outlined what he’s hoping to get out of the battle with United, while heaping praise on Dash Daniels.

“We’re looking to compete, we respect our opponents and whatever knowledge we can take away from these games and take back to the NBA, we’ll definitely do,” Williamson explained.

“From the film I saw on him (Dash Daniels), they’re very similar (Dyson and Dash Daniels), especially defensively… Some of the deflections he’s able to get when he’s defending, it’s simply incredible.”

Extremely limited tickets remain available to the contest by clicking here. 

Those not in attendance can watch the historic game live on Channel 10 or on Amazon Prime Video.