Last season, Zion Williamson played in 70 games, averaged 22.9 points, 5.8 rebounds and 5 assists a night while shooting 57% from the field. Yet, he didn’t make the All-Star team, was not particularly close to making an All-NBA team, and when the play-in came he pulled his hamstring during a 40-point performance against the Lakers and couldn’t be there for his team the rest of the postseason. Maybe the most telling moment of last season was the finals of the NBA’s inaugural In-Season Tournament, where LeBron James and Anthony Davis raised their level and the Lakers mopped the floor with the Pelicans.
Williamson told William Guillory of The Athletic, “This s*** can’t happen anymore,” and dedicated himself toward putting in the work and being new season where he gets mentioned with the game’s elite.
“I’m out for straight vengeance,” Williamson said. “Not against any particular person. Just for myself.”
Zion said it all started when the Lakers ran the Pelicans off the court in Las Vegas.
“(The In-Season Tournament loss) was definitely one of the key turning points in the season, and honestly, for me as a man in my career,” Williamson says. “I’m watching (LeBron James) out here on the court, doing what he’s doing. I’m telling myself I want to be a player that has a high level of greatness — one of the greats. In that big moment, I didn’t show up. It hit me while the game was going on. I just looked up and said, ‘I didn’t show up.’ I don’t have any excuse.”
If your reaction to all this is, “We’ve seen this movie before,” you’re not wrong — Zion has talked before multiple seasons about a change in his mindset, his diet, his relationship with his teammates, and more. This report says what is different this time is that he is working more closely with the Pelicans (certainly not something that was always the case), and his teammates and the Pelicans say this feels different.
We’re past the talking and on to the “prove it” stage with Zion. Actions, not words. It’s on him.
The Pelicans have a lot of talent on the roster — they added Dejonte Murray but still have no center — and could finish in the top six in the West or out of the playoffs altogether. In a deep conference where little things will separate teams, Zion being elite would make the Pelicans potential fringe contenders. He’s got that potential.
We just need to see it in more than flashes. And he’s got to stay healthy.
