SUMMARY
- Zion Williamson, a talented basketball player, joined the New Orleans Pelicans team in 2019 and has been playing with them for many years now.
- The player struggled with managing a healthy lifestyle and hunger cravings during his college years due to receiving a large amount of money.
Drafted in 2019, Zion Williamson has played for the New Orleans Pelicans for quite some years now. A native of North Carolina stands 6 feet 6 and weighs 284 lbs. Since 2018, when he was offered a scholarship from Duke in his college era, the power forward has been fighting a battle with constant weight fluctuations. In his college year, 2018-2019 alone, the player felt susceptible to hunger cravings since he didn’t know how to manage a healthy lifestyle while receiving hefty money.
The constant weight gain had repercussions on his performance on the court, and hence the teams made a conscious effort to deal with the same. Since the power forward missed 194 games in his debut season and was out of practice due to a foot injury, the weight gain has attained full momentum. In the 2021–22 season, the player was listed as weighing over 300 pounds.
Although Williamson weighed somewhere around 284 lbs in his college year, the frequent weight fluctuations remained consistent once he signed a contract with the New Orleans Pelicans. Therefore, he hired performance artists Jasper Bibs and Chef Lewis to prepare him for his potential return in the 2023–24 season.
Keeping this issue into account, the Pelicans instilled a clause in the contract regarding weight limits. As per the clause, if Zion Williamson fails to maintain the range of his weight and goes over 295 pounds, then the guaranteed contract will be null and void.
Zion Williamson has recently been called out for his poor conditioning
The 23-year-old inked a $193 million, five-year max contract with the Pelicans last offseason that kicked off the 2023 regular season. The weight gain clause offers some financial incentives for the player that could range as high as $231 million. However, the problems don’t seem to end anytime soon for the player, as he can lose even more on the signed contract.
Since the Pelicans suffered a major loss to the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA In-Season tournament in 2023, Williamson’s problems have gotten enough traction from the media.
What’s astonishing is that since Zion Willaimson has gotten out of shape just two or three months into the season, his work ethic has taken a back seat. Not only was he defeated by the 38-year-old LeBron James by a significant margin, but the star forward also had to miss too many games owing to injuries.
While many NBA veterans blame the excess weight for the frequent ankle and foot injuries, it’s true that the player has now lost the guaranteed 3 years of the contract between 2025 and 28. While his salary will rise every year, the power forward has to work hard to pass the regular weigh-ins.