Zion Williamson is the biggest name and attraction of New Orleans basketball. No this was not a dig towards Williamson’s weight issues. He is genuinely what was keeping the Pelicans basketball relevant since the AD trade. And he’s been doing that with playing barely any games and has been injury-prone.
No matter how big of a star you are, when you stop performing at a high level or in Zion’s case, at all, there are consequences.
The backlash began when it was announced that Zion Williamson will be undergoing another foot surgery. In the offseason, he had gotten surgery on that same foot and therefore missed this season.
However, he was supposed to rehab and join the Pelicans after the All-Star break. With the 2nd potential surgery, that now seems impossible. This information gave him the tag of ‘Injury Prone‘. But some people believed he was doing this to force his way out of NOLA.
Why did Zion Williamson post an Instagram story for his teammates?
Another sign to add to that speculation is when CJ McCollum, Zion’s newest teammate announced that Zion had not reached out to him since he was traded.
CJ is a good player who would substantially increase the chances of NOLA winning alongside Ingram and Williamson. However, there is no reason to exchange pleasantries if you do not plan on staying around.
JJ Redick, a former teammate of Zion, called out his obscene behavior by saying this, “This just shows a complete lack of investment in your team, in the organization, in the city….. I was his teammate and I can describe him as a ‘detached teammate’.”
These words from JJ Redick caught huge media attention and put Zion even more under scrutiny. He needed to get his image to look cleaner or teams would keep themselves away from him when he would eventually leave. Hence, Zion reposted a story of Willy Hernangomez with the caption,
“My dawgs 4L ????”
Zion showing love to his teammates ???? pic.twitter.com/3SoI9hm7va
— NBA Central (@TheNBACentral) February 24, 2022
This screams out a desperate last-ditch damage control attempt to lay off some of the drama clouds around him. As much as this might keep him out of the headlines for a bit, the chemistry or Zion situation in NOLA is not going to fix itself.
CJ McCollum is trying to deescalate the situation by telling the media to, “Leave the young fellow alone”. And that they will try to resolve the situation internally.
Will we see Zion ever play again for the Pelicans after this whole ordeal has unfolded? We are going to have to wait till the offseason for that answer.