After J.J. Redick‘s condemnation of Zion Williamson‘s behavior toward new Pelicans teammate CJ McCollum, McCollum stated that Williamson finally reached out and the two spoke, but Williamson’s public silence is a willful choice not to quiet the speculation surrounding the franchise, Scott Kushner of NOLA.com opines.
A year ago, Williamson was a first-time All-Star and one of the league’s must-see young players. Yet on Monday, the Pelicans removed Williamson from marketing materials to season-ticket holders for next season, instead focusing on Brandon Ingram, Jonas Valanciunas and McCollum, as Kushner writes.
According to Kushner, the decision to omit Williamson isn’t an indication that New Orleans is interested in trading the young star. It’s an acknowledgement that the Pelicans don’t know when he’ll return to the court, and a way to shield themselves from criticism of false advertising.
It’s a stark contrast to the Media Day comments made by executive VP of basketball operations David Griffin, who suggested at the time that Williamson would be ready for the regular season. Williamson also expressed optimism about his return back then, but he still hasn’t played a game this season and has been in Oregon since early January while rehabbing his injured foot.
Here’s more on the Williamson situation:
- Appearing on SportsCenter, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst (video link) states the Pelicans and Williamson are “distant, both literally and figuratively.” Since Zion left the team to rehab elsewhere, the Pelicans haven’t released an update on his health status, and his camp has been very cautious in limiting information, per Windhorst. Windhorst thinks the Pelicans might offer Williamson a rookie scale scale extension this summer similar to the one Joel Embiid received, with some of the contract being non-guaranteed and based around injury protection.
- Similar to Kushner, William Guillory of The Athletic writes that if Williamson wants the outside noise to stop, his actions need to start backing up his words. Williamson says he loves the city of New Orleans, but then disappears for periods of time, leaving a shroud of mystery. Williamson’s last conversation with the media came in late September, during Media Day. Prior to Zion’s departure to Oregon for rehab, several members of the organization — over the course of three-plus months — tried to convince him to make public statements about his recovery process, but Williamson chose to remain silent, Guillory reports. It’s gotten to the point that Pelicans fans don’t trust what Williamson has to say anymore, according to Guillory.
- Tom Ziller of Substack thinks the Pelicans bear plenty of blame for how events have transpired with Williamson, noting that there has been a rotating cast of three head coaches and several veteran teammates in his two-plus seasons with the team, creating instability for the young star. Lonzo Ball was reportedly Williamson’s best friend on the team and the two had synergy on the court, but the Pelicans opted to not re-sign him. Williamson clearly isn’t doing his job, Ziller states, but others in New Orleans are culpable as well.
Let it burn…
JJ just comes off as salty bc it’s the Pelicans.
Honestly don’t think it’s a big deal that he didnt reach out. Hes supposed to be rehabbing just had a setback. He hasn’t played. Getting fat. Probably depressed. Is Zion even around the team a whole lot? Doubtful.
JJ had a podcast, he needs hot takes to get listeners or viewers.
No one was really paying attention to that and now JJ is front and center. He saw a marketing opportunity and took it.
Redick doesn’t like the Pelicans front office so why would he defend them? I’m not a fan of him, but I don’t see where his assumptions are off
I mean his job on espn is commenting on basketball, like this article says zion can silence everyone by just speaking, I would ship him ASAP if I were New Orleans, Greg oden 2
Disagree on Redick but agree Zion is likely depressed.
The president of the players union was added to the team and the star player hasn’t talked to him yet. That says something
Honestly not signing Lonzo back on the team was probably did it. I mean you can already tell he didn’t really want to be in NO, but with Lonzo it probably made it tolerable for him. He’s gonna pull the ‘injured and not returning until traded’ thing that is becoming more and more prevalent in the league.
Lol @ your use of the word “probably”. Was this really worth posting?
Probably not
Rayreed I guess you quickly gave up on the post but it had more content… including a trending theme that names something a new CBA should address, bc it seems to happen increasingly.
Unless you wholeheartedly agree about the effect of Lonzo leaving and would rather the qualification be more like “for sure” and not “probably”!
As someone whose sign-on basically translates as, “probably so”, I am liable to note your objection… but there are always exceptions… and ZW may have already been on a job action.
Anyway Griffen should see what he can get for him this offseason. Actually he should have sent him away by now.
If Zion asks for Lonzo to stay, de FO would have made that move 100%. The problem is not the roster, is that he wants to play on a bigger market and he don’t like NO city; at least its what it seems, based on his little commitment to the Team/City.
@mikey spot on man it really seems like it is the same as Kawhi Leonard and the spurs
Chuck and Shaq’s baby :D
This dude needs to distance himself from whoever is giving him advice/guidance.
Zion who? Oh you mean Greg Oden, got it.
BUSTA WHINES
New Orleans doesn’t need an NBA team. Just let them know when LSU football and the Saints start.
If Zion is traded watch out for Boston.
I think NO should trade him ASAP, if the return is Ok in terms of value; if not, they should wait till Zion plays and shows he is healthy.
So, they should try to trade him to the East, im not sure if any other team can offer a star lvl player like J. Brown, so yes, i think Boston can have him. Still i don’t think they will invest that for a player who is looking injury prone and lacks profesionalism.
No chance Zion gets you Jaylen Brown
so any comments by the fo, coaches, teammates, fans, and media questioning his decisions will create a toxic environment and hurt his development. thus leading to a new direction and fresh starts for both sides.
Zion should have stayed in college for as long as possible. Like…forever.
Don’t see why JJ is getting hate or anything.
He is a former teammate and player, he knows Zion personally. Yes as a podcaster and ESPN analysts he will make statements for attention but in this case he’s only speaking facts.
It’s normal to reach out to players even before a trade and try convince them to come. It’s even more normal that after a trade is done you atleast say hi or reach out and say looking forward to linking up or suiting up.
As he said he understands Zion is away from the team or whatever but your the face of this franchise, your one of the biggest talents in the league and you can’t even said a simple message that’ll take 5 minutes out of your day. It’s not like he’s training, playing games or doing press conferences he’s doing rehab and eating loads of food. Put down your chicken wings and said a message you overpaid bust.
I doubt he has depression, or any of that BS. He’s just doing a Ben Simmons/OBJ type thing but even worse. The I don’t want to play for this team attitude among players is so bad. I’m sure Adam silver is watching this situation closely
ZW may be doing a “thing” (a quasi-holdout), but at first, I suspect there was sincerity from everyone about his feet.
But obesity alone can take its toll. IDK if it is called depression or not, but if one cannot get rid of excessive weight, it will drag you down, physically & mentally.
The ZW fam will “weigh in” about Griffen, who after all is no innocent, but this is not his fault.
If you plan on making a living by running around in shorts outfits and keeping up with the skinnies, nevermind about any importance of feeling good about being overweight!
Zion is playing that very well & outsmarting the team at every corner, hopefully this summer he gets out of there & to somewhere he wants to be, so next year he can dominate the league again, so far he has done everything right & professionally, nothing here for any fan to complain about!
L
Imagine unironically thinking this
Hobbes your criticism lacked any specifics, so I have to guess… You don’t agree with player agent strategems? Or think that ZW is doomed regardless so why should anyone bother being concerned? Whatever
#freebensimmons
Liking your own comment is particularly bad when your post is ridiculous. When has Zion dominated the league? And since when does getting out of shape fall under the category of doing “everything right” and “professionally.”
Has a “star” ever given up on a team so early in his career?
Zion is acting like he is an MVP and all world player. But all he has proven so far is legit when healthy but he has missed more games than he has played so far.
If he is disappointed with the team, maybe they would play better if he was able to stay on the court consistently.
kobe with charlotte.
WTF are you talking about? Kobe never quit on Charlotte. He was traded immediately after being drafted. That was a deal set up between the Hornets and Lakers, not Kobe trying to force his way to another team. Research before posting.
I like a good what-if… or what-if-not. link to charlotteobserver.com
You need an account to see that site
Great thread title.
I bet Rory Maher has a novel going, somewhere in the files of his laptop.
I truly think this is much to do about nothing. Kid’s rehashing away from the team and was likely oblivious to the idea that teaching out to CJ was the right thing to do. im sure he’s probably met him before. he doesn’t have that big bro mentor in the locker room to point out nba edicate. I don’t think his silence was meant to send a message either. kids probably thinking “what the heck did I do wrong”? the Pelicans could’ve done a better job of making that into happen. Unless he’s totally alienated himself from the team and can only be reached thru “his ppl” then they could’ve made this a non story. CJ speaking on it could’ve been mitigated too.
Send him to NYC so he can see how soon he can wear out his welcome in an NBA city that cares. Pelicans are rebuilding the roster as if he will not be there, which is the only way to handle an uncertain injury. If Ingram figures out that he is not the #1 on this team, they will surprise some people. CJ has been scoring 20 without his teammates actually feeding him the ball. I believe the team is going to make a trade to try to fill this roster out with some depth. This is the last year that draft picks will help them unless they want to start over again. Zion may end up a trivia question. Makes all the tanking talk to try to draft him seem as spurious as it was. Good player, poor discipline, poor attitude. Pels need to move on.