Williamson's Nike shoe exploded less than a minute into the blockbuster and the 18-year-old went down in a heap. He clutched his leg after hitting the floor before hobbling off to the locker room.
"His foot comes out of his shoe. That's unbelievable," one commentator said.
Duke later issued a statement saying Williamson would sit out the remainder of the match with a knee injury.
Williamson grabbed his right knee in pain after slipping awkwardly and falling when his left shoe fell apart as he planted while dribbling near the free throw line.
Williamson, the ACC's second-leading scorer at 22.4 points per game and arguably the most exciting player in college basketball, walked off with a slight limp but under his own power before heading back to the locker room with no shoes on his feet.
The calamity spelt disaster for Nike — who will be hoping to sign the teenage prodigy when he becomes available in April — because it happened in the most watched college game of the season. You know there'll be plenty of eyeballs on you when Obama rocks up but everyone watching will have been devastated when the main attraction was rubbed out by a fashion fail.
Some punters paid upwards of $US9000 for tickets to the game to catch Williamson in action. He's that good, ESPN basketball commentator Fran Fraschilla said last year he will make $1 billion playing the sport "effortlessly".
ESPN's Jay Williams also said the teen beast is in line for an $AUD1.4 million shoe deal.
Viewers were quick to flood social media to let Nike executives know — in case they couldn't figure it out for themselves — how damaging a look the exploding shoe was for the brand, and for their hopes of landing Williamson and attaching themselves to the $1 billion megastar in waiting.
Rival sportswear company Puma also hit Nike with a stinging sledge in a since-deleted sledge that read: "Wouldn't have happened in Pumas."
To make matters worse, NBA superstar LeBron James drew the attention of his 42.2 million Twitters to the incident.
Other NBA commentators finally reached boiling point in the ongoing outcry surrounding college basketball rules which outlaws any form of player payment in a sport that still classifies itself amateur.
Duke is four years into a 12-year deal with Nike as the exclusive supplier of uniforms, shoes and apparel. The private school didn't disclose terms of the 2015 contract extension.
Nike has had an exclusive deal with the university since 1992.
