Zion Williamson confirms the Knicks’ interest is mutual

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The Next Big Thing is a basketball Pied Piper. You will place your life on hold for a chance to gawk at The Next Big Thing. The Knicks certainly have, and will.

So I asked Duke freshman phenomenon Zion Williamson if he is aware that long-suffering Knicks fans are starving for him to come save them.

“I mean, I don’t know if they need much saving, but … to the New York fans, I really appreciate the love and support. If the Knicks did draft me, I would love to be there. Like I said, whatever team drafts me, that’s where I want to be.”

I asked what he knows about the Knicks.

“I know that they’re a very historic-like team,” he said. “They have a lot of history based off of.

“I mean, if they draft me, it’d be an honor to play for them.”

He is The Next Big Thing, and he will be The Next Big Thing in the NBA, and he would be The Next Big Thing should the basketball gods be merciful to the Knicks for a change at the draft lottery.

Even alongside a Kevin Durant and a Kyrie Irving — ya gotta believe, right? — he would be The Zion King.

In the meantime, he is poised to make his March Madness debut Friday night in his home state against North Dakota State. Wherever he goes, everyone knows when The Next Big Thing is in the room.

The room on Thursday happened to be the Colonial Life Arena when a crowd of 2,500 fans watched Duke’s 40-minute workout, and there were moments that caused you to wonder whether Elvis entering the building might have caused such a ruckus.

In the age of social media, The Next Big Thing becomes even bigger, and Zion Williamson goes 6-foot-7, 285 pounds anyway. And because he somehow is gifted with bursts of Saquon Barkley quickness and often appears as graceful as Fred Astaire on the dance floor, the Tankerbockers lust for him every bit as much as then-GM Dave DeBusschere lusted at the 1985 lottery for one Patrick Ewing.

It is as if someone has made him in a laboratory — he can whistle the right pass at the right time, could have given Dennis Rodman fits on the boards, and though Mike Krzyzewski has served as a prominent feeder system for the NBA, he has never had to deal with Zionmania.

Fortunately for Coach K, The Next Big Thing carries the weight of great expectations the way LeBron did, even embraces being The Next Big Thing, remembers advice from his mother and flashes a Magic Johnson smile in the midst of all the hoopla and hullabaloo that have soured and broken adults and leave you marveling that this man-child is only 18 years old.

“You just gotta have fun,” Zion said. “It might not always be like positive, but that’s just life.”

Zion is humble in an Eli Manning kind of way, and every bit as good a teammate, because how else do you explain the fact there doesn’t seem to be an ounce of jealousy from the other Duke thoroughbreds who are asked to extol the many virtues of The Next Big Thing at every turn? He shares a cramped space in the locker room alongside teammate Mike Buckmire during media sessions and good-naturedly consults him whenever he feels he needs assistance, which he doesn’t.

“We bonded real easy off the court, and once we got on the court, it was like magic,” Zion said.

When his sneaker exploded, and his sprained knee forced him to miss six games, some urged him to shut it down and not risk the millions waiting in the bank for him.

“I always knew I’d be coming back because I love the game of basketball, and I love my teammates,” Zion said. “I made a commitment to them when I came to Duke. I feel like I would have been a bad person if I didn’t come back.

“But one thing I did think about when I was out was a year has gone by fast. Just last year I was a senior in high school. My high school season was over at this point. You know, you just think about life and how you just have to enjoy every moment.”

The crowd groaned when he passed up an opportunity for one of his eye-popping dunks for a boring layup, then roared when he stopped the tease. A wide-eyed 10-year-old boy named Chaz Crosby stood nearby and was asked why he likes Zion so much.

“Cause he can dunk, and he’s a beast,” the boy said, “and he inspires me.”

You don’t have to be 10 years old at the Garden for someone like this to inspire you.