Most hyped draft pick since LeBron James?

[ChillyWilly]

Since LeBron is Zion the most hyped coming into the league? Wasnt Simmons suppose to be the next generational player?

[CelticsElite]

Would rank most hyped as follows;
Anthony Davis
Wiggins/Parker
Zion
Towns
Rose
Oden
Simmons
Griffin
Kyrie
Wall

[Donoghus]

Since LeBron is Zion the most hyped coming into the league? Wasnt Simmons suppose to be the next generational player?

Anthony Davis was getting a bunch of hype.   He was playing for a prominent college program that was consistently featured on TV then they went on and won the national title. 

It'd kinda forgotten now due to the way history unfolded but Greg Oden was getting a ton of hype also. 

[fairweatherfan]

Would rank most hyped as follows;
Anthony Davis
Wiggins/Parker
Zion
Towns
Rose
Oden
Simmons
Griffin
Kyrie
Wall

Feel like Wiggins/Parker hype was more coming into college then around draft time. By the time the draft rolled around it was pretty widely understood that Embiid was the best talent but just had tons of injury red flags.

Zion's hype blew up as the season went on and was pretty much at a peak when he was picked.

To the OP's question it's Zion, AD or Oden/Durant. I'd probably go Zion > Oden=Durant > AD

[RLewis35]

For most hyped, it’s definitely Zion.  The following and brand he has coming in is unmatched by anyone.  In terms of talent, I agree that AD and Oden and maybe Durant are right there with him, but hype and following is all Zion. 

[liam]

Luka should've been but a lot of folks didn't trust that because he played overseas...

[BudweiserCeltic]

Poor OJ Mayo, forgotten.

[ETNCeltics]

Zion and it's not even close. AD, Wiggins, etc. weren't hyped a fraction as much. Zion was frequently the lead story on ESPN whether he had a big game or amazing play or not. AD and those other guys didn't get near that attention. AD got a lot of attention around their NCAA tourney run, but Zion got that level of hype almost from the get-go.

Durant didn't get that hype and he was arguably the best college freshman in 20 years.

Part of it was Zion's freakish athleticism, part of it was playing for Duke. Guys who play for KY, Kansas, other good programs don't get the national attention a Duke or UNC player will. Kind of the same way SEC football has a bigger spotlight, ACC basketball is king, even in years where it isn't.

Zion not playing in NO has generated more heat than AD did there when he was an all-star.

[seancally]

Zion and it's not even close. AD, Wiggins, etc. weren't hyped a fraction as much. Zion was frequently the lead story on ESPN whether he had a big game or amazing play or not. AD and those other guys didn't get near that attention. AD got a lot of attention around their NCAA tourney run, but Zion got that level of hype almost from the get-go.

Durant didn't get that hype and he was arguably the best college freshman in 20 years.

Part of it was Zion's freakish athleticism, part of it was playing for Duke. Guys who play for KY, Kansas, other good programs don't get the national attention a Duke or UNC player will. Kind of the same way SEC football has a bigger spotlight, ACC basketball is king, even in years where it isn't.

Zion not playing in NO has generated more heat than AD did there when he was an all-star.

Agree - and part of it is also what the hype machine looks like now and how it applied to Zion. So much of his hype is tied up in YouTube/Instagram/Twitter/House of Highlights etc. Then he backed it up at Duke as opposed to taking a hit, like Wiggins/Parker did going into their freshman year.

[sahara]

Zion and it's not even close. AD, Wiggins, etc. weren't hyped a fraction as much. Zion was frequently the lead story on ESPN whether he had a big game or amazing play or not. AD and those other guys didn't get near that attention. AD got a lot of attention around their NCAA tourney run, but Zion got that level of hype almost from the get-go.

Durant didn't get that hype and he was arguably the best college freshman in 20 years.

Part of it was Zion's freakish athleticism, part of it was playing for Duke. Guys who play for KY, Kansas, other good programs don't get the national attention a Duke or UNC player will. Kind of the same way SEC football has a bigger spotlight, ACC basketball is king, even in years where it isn't.

Zion not playing in NO has generated more heat than AD did there when he was an all-star.

Agree - and part of it is also what the hype machine looks like now and how it applied to Zion. So much of his hype is tied up in YouTube/Instagram/Twitter/House of Highlights etc. Then he backed it up at Duke as opposed to taking a hit, like Wiggins/Parker did going into their freshman year.

I agree with all of this. "Strangely" all of this hype coincides with Lebron´s final years, just like his hype amped up when Jordan was finally retiring for real.

[johnnygreen]

Are we talking strictly from a USA perspective? If not, doesn’t this have to be Luka Doncic? I remember hearing about Luka years before he entered the draft, and he was playing overseas. For NBA fans in the states, he was something of folklore, where we couldn’t believe the stories of how good he was. If NBA scouts properly valuated Doncic, he would have easily been the most hyped player since LeBron. However, since I feel he wasn’t properly evaluated, I’ll go with the following:

Derrick Rose
Anthony Davis
Ben Simmons

[Fafnir]

I think the general public is most hyped about Zion.

I think the NBA was most hyped about Anthony Davis.

[bdm860]

Poor OJ Mayo, forgotten.

My recollection is OJ Mayo was the most well known coming out of high school (cool name and he definitely had a marketing team behind him), but for most of that college year it was all about Michael Beasley.  Dude was a beast. Pulling straight from wikipedia's write up:

In the 2007–2008 regular season, Beasley was one of the most dominant players in the country. His 26.2 points (3rd in the nation) and nation-leading 12.4 rebounds were the most by a Big 12 player in any season. His 866 total points and 408 rebounds ranked third and second among all freshmen in NCAA history. He also led the nation in double-doubles (28), 40-point games (three), 30-point, 10-rebound games (13), and 20-point, 10-rebound games (22). His 28 double-doubles broke the freshman double-double record previously held by Carmelo Anthony who had 22 double-doubles in his only season at Syracuse in 2002–03. On February 23, 2008, Beasley scored a Big 12 record 44 points in a 92-86 loss at Baylor. (This mark has since been matched by Kansas State's Denis Clemente.) Beasley became known as an unstoppable force when shooting, finishing the season shooting 53.7 percent from the field (282 of 525). He also finished the season shooting 39.5 percent from 3-point range.

Beasley holds 30 Kansas State career, single-season and freshman records as well as 17 Big 12 single-game and single-season marks.

Rose played on a great Memphis team (36-2) that wasn't loaded with lottery talent like future Calipari teams, and had a nice tournament run.  Chicago, drafting #1, also had recently drafted guys like Tyrus Thomas, Luol Deng, and Joakim Noah in the top 10 occupying the forward spots, plus had Ben Gordon at SG.  A PG like Rose would be the perfect fit next to all those guys.

Plus Beasley, rightfully so, had some knucklehead concerns.

But I think a lot of teams would have taken Beasley #1.  Dude was expected to come into the league kind of like Blake Griffin.

All that too say Beasley had exceeded Mayo in hype going into that draft.

[gouki88]

Zion, and it’s not really a discussion.

For me personally, it was Luka. Thought he was it

[Fafnir]

OJ Mayo had nuts hype going into college at USC. He fizzled so bad everyone was unsure on him.