Zion Williamson receives praise from CJ McCollum as he proves his doubters wrong by taking the Pelicans to te top seed.
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Zion Williamson was the highest-recruited star in the 2019 draft class. He had one of the most impeccable runs at Duke, taking them to the elite eight. While Zion won every award imaginable for a collegiate athlete, he was not very successful during his time in the NBA. Zion Williamson spent most of his rookie year with an injury. He has missed more games than he has played. Williamson has played 85 games for the pelicans in three years and missed 86 games in three years.
He sat out his rookie season with a Knee Injury and missed the second half of the 2021-22 season with a foot injury. Moreover, the highly anticipated player who was going to have a LeBronesque career start had it derailed due to injuries. Zion quickly became the target of a lot of hate. He was deemed to be a bust due to his injury-prone start and his weight and health issues. Regardless, with 25 games in hand, Zion Williamson has taken the Pelicans to the dream run they drafted him for.
Zion Williamson is finally proving to be the player he was sought to be. In the very short time he played, Zion showed that he is a force in the paint and has an unstoppable presence like Giannis Antetokounmpo. His teammate CJ Mc Collum praised Zion for his scoring spree that took the Pelicans to the highest seed in the Western Conference for the first time in what feels like forever. CJ wrote,” Let the praise be as loud as the disrespect was. DOMINANT”.
Not only has Zion taken the Pelicans to another level, but he is also doing it quite fashionably. His 360-degree dunk against the Pheonix Suns won the game for the Pels. He is also the Western Conference player of the League and is averaging 33.0 points and 8.4 rebounds on a field goal percentage of 70%, winning all three of the games he played.
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The Pelicans are 18-8 and on a 7-game win streak. Several NBA analysts and talk show hosts called him ‘unfit’ and not suitable for the NBA. They questioned his fitness and work ethic. It is justifiable that Zion Williamson is getting a chance to silence his doubters.
Out of the 22.7 points, Williamson is averaging this season, 18.9 of them are coming from inside the paint, second best in the League. Williamson has become the force the League knew he could one day become, thanks largely to the training staff that spent hours with him in the gym and his personal chef this past off-season, Jhonas Lewis. Zion Williamson’s weight was quite the talk in the NBA Preseason, and that was one of the main reasons why he got so much hate.
Zion said, “Every time they talked about me, it was about weight,” Williamson said. “I don’t even think they realized what kind of impact that can have on you.” Without a doubt, it is time to give Zion Williamson his flowers and apologize for the hate that was directed toward him.
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