Back in Tacoma, former Curtis star, five-star recruit Zoom Diallo commits to Washington
Former Curtis High School star basketball player and nationally-prized recruit Zoom Diallo returned home to Tacoma over Christmas break to announce his college commitment. In front of friends and family at the Rhodes Center in downtown Tacoma, Diallo verbally committed to the University of Washington.
Diallo had narrowed his final decision to Gonzaga, USC, Arizona and Washington before announcing his commitment Saturday evening.
“It’s been stressful,” he said on Saturday in a conference room on the fifth floor of the Rhodes Center. “I was going back and forth with many schools. This is something I slept on, I gave it some time, I had people in my circle telling me, ‘Whatever you think is right.’
“I had nobody pressuring me on my decision, this was really me just making this decision on my own, trusting my work and trusting who I am as a person.”
Diallo led Curtis to back-to-back Class 4A state titles in his sophomore and junior seasons. In his junior year, he was named both the Tacoma News Tribune’s All-Area and state player of the year, after averaging 20.2 points, 5.5 assists, 4.4 rebounds and 1.3 steals. He scored a game-high 21 points against Olympia in the state championship game at the Tacoma Dome and was named the tournament MVP.
With Curtis’ nucleus mostly graduating after Diallo’s junior year, he transferred to Prolific Prep in California for his final high school season.
Diallo, a 6-foot-4 guard, is considered a five-star recruit by 247sports.com and a four-star recruit by ESPN, which ranks him the No. 25 player in the country in the 2024 class.
If his career stays on its current trajectory, Diallo could be the next player from Tacoma to play in the NBA after college. Bellarmine Prep grads Malachi Flynn (Toronto) and Avery Bradley (last played for the Lakers in 2021-22) are the most recent Tacoma products to play in the NBA. Bradley finished his high school career at Findlay Prep in Nevada after transferring from Bellarmine. Diallo would be following in the footsteps of two-time NBA All-Star Isaiah Thomas, who also played at Curtis and the UW.
“Isaiah’s been a big role model,” Diallo said. “On this decision, he did not tell me, ‘You need to go to UW.’ He was just telling me basic knowledge of, ‘Wherever you think you’re gonna fit, wherever you think you’re gonna have an impact, wherever you think you’re gonna grow as a person and as a basketball player.’ I feel like that was just great to hear from a person like him. I took his information and many other people’s information.”
Diallo, who said it came down to UW and one other unnamed school toward the end, said he communicated most with UW assistant Will Conroy throughout his recruiting process. When he called Conroy to deliver the news, Conroy had to pull his car over.
“He was ecstatic, jumped out the car and started yelling,” Diallo said, smiling. “He wasn’t feeling good, but he said he was feeling a little bit better after that one.”
Diallo is an explosive three-level scorer with a smooth handle, a high-level jump shot and midrange game and has the ability to finish acrobatic shots at the rim through traffic.
Federal Way High School coach Yattah Reed, who has coached plenty of talented players, including current Minnesota Timberwolves forward Jaden McDaniels, thinks Diallo is up there with some of the best players he has coached and seen.
“You can’t rush him,” Reed told The News Tribune last March. “He does everything at his pace. You can’t rush him, you can’t rattle him in regards of trying to speed him up. You can’t get him out of his game. He’s going to get to his spots.”
Olympia coach John Kiley coached against Rainier Beach’s Jamal Crawford in the 1998 state championship game. He thinks Diallo has the same next-level factor.
“He just has that different quality,” Kiley told the TNT in March. “Similar length, explosiveness. Just the next-level ability to make a play.”
Diallo is playing his last high school basketball season in California, but wanted to return home during Christmas break to make his announcement, surrounded by family and friends.
“Being around with family, close people, there’s no better feeling than that,” he said. “Being close to my mom, my dad, my brother, my nephew, I’ve been away from home for three, four months and haven’t seen them. To celebrate this big moment for my family and our last name, I feel like it was just perfect.”
This story was originally published December 23, 2023 at 4:45 PM with the headline "Back in Tacoma, former Curtis star, five-star recruit Zoom Diallo commits to Washington."
