The Brief Wondrous Career of Zion Williamson

How it's all gone so wrong, and could still go right

190. That is the number of games that Zion Williamson has played in his NBA career to date, now about a third of the way through his fifth season in the league.

For context, NBA teams play 82 of those every year. It’s not clear when and if Zion — yeah, we’re on a first-name basis — will make it back this year, given his New Orleans Pelicans are teetering on the point of being too far gone to catch up in a crowded West. They have the worst record in that conference and the second-worst record in the league, trailing only the lowly Wizards. You know, the Poole Party crew? Yeah. Those guys.

In those 190 games, Zion’s been very good, occasionally great. Even with all the missed time, he’s made two All-Star games. Early on, he flashed the sort of inside scoring talent that promised to make him a star.

Convoluted statistical resume alert, but let’s try and muddle through: in the 2020-2021 season, Zion had a historically good age-20 campaign. It was, by Box Plus-Minus, the third-best ever, trailing only LeBron James and Luka Doncic. That’s good!

That same year, he tied the league record for the longest streak of consecutive 20-point games on 50% shooting. That’s an arbitrary bar, but a telling one because it’s hard to do. He did that 25 games in a row, passing guys like Wilt Chamberlain and

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

(of Substack fame!) and tying the one and only Shaquille O’Neal, who I’m told is also known as Shaq. We, too, are on a first-name basis.

All of those guys are Hall of Fame centers. That’s good! Or, it was good. From that season on, it has been… less good.

‘Tantalizing’ is a word that aptly describes Zion’s unique level of talent. It’s hard to give up on a guy who can be that special when he’s on the court.

The problem, obviously, is he usually isn’t. Potential is great for an incoming draft pick. Fantastic for a rookie, sophomore, even a third-year guy. By year five, though, people start to wonder.

A series of major injuries — first his knee, then his foot, and now his hamstring — have taken him off the court for months at a time. Reliability has not been a strength of his, and it’s probably fair to speculate that his improbably big frame, combined with his explosive playing style, might have something to do with the medicals.

What troubles me is the growing sense that it’s not just down to tough luck. A guy like Joel Embiid, for all the reports of his own lack of professionalism this year, has looked like a model citizen next to a guy like Zion. They share some of the same issues, actually — their playing weight and load management — but at least Embiid has some real accomplishments to his name: conference finals runs, scoring titles, an MVP trophy, a shiny new Olympic gold.

Williamson’s got none of that, and while he hasn’t had as long to pursue it, making that comp a teensy bit unfair, you’d be hard-pressed to say he’s on the right track.

There’s no sense in continuing to dance around the central contention here. Zion’s been out of shape a lot, and by most accounts, he’s never been consistent about taking that aspect of his career seriously.

The conditioning trouble has been going on for years, so much so that it actually gets less attention than it used to. Which is sad, really, in that that — to me — represents a collective acceptance that this guy might just not pan out. It’s not a disappointment when it’s expected, right? So again I say: sad.

Zion appeared to be falling asleep on the bench in 2020, when he was out with a knee injury. Not the end of the world, but a bad look made worse by its recurrence in 2021, when a Pelicans beat reporter accused him of also falling asleep in film sessions. What’s worse, the more damning accusation in that case was that Zion had been skipping his rehab assignments. Not what you want to hear.

In 2022, Zion signed a much-scrutinized contract extension, which was notable not for its $193 million value so much as the clause that stipulated "the sum of his weight and body fat percentage must be below 295.” A weight requirement. In his contract. I’ve never even heard of that before, which goes some way to showing just how bizarre the situation had gotten.

Then things got weirder still. In 2023, there was that, uh… let’s call it a situation? He (allegedly) broke things off with a porn star he’d (allegedly) been dating and thus (allegedly) stopped regularly wiring her large sums of money. The porn star in question then responded by joining the chorus of people calling him out for being out of shape (not allegedly — that part’s pretty provable). And she said some other stuff that I’d rather not repeat. Messy!

Then, later that year, a local paper dropped a rough report, saying the Pelicans had “repeatedly stressed” to Zion that he needed to improve his diet and conditioning, but Zion “doesn’t listen.” That article cited multiple sources from within the team. That was also not great.

Concerns about his playing weight thus persisted, including these comments from Stephen A. Smith in January of this year:

“In my belief, Woj [RIP], he doesn’t want to be there. He doesn’t want to be in New Orleans. That’s his biggest problem. I think if he was some place he really, really wanted to be, we’d see something different. It’s unprofessional, I don’t like it and I think that plays a role in his lack of conditioning. But, I think that’s it.”

Fans are frustrated, which leads them to say mean (but, gosh darnit, pretty funny) things like this:

Nothing further, your honor.

By the end of that 23-24 season, things seemed like they might finally be looking up. He’d made all these very public mistakes and was playing through the noise. He’d suited up for 70 games, the most of his career, and he finished at a high point, scoring 40 in a narrow loss to the Lakers in the play-in round. They might’ve won that game too, if he hadn’t injured his hamstring with ~3 minutes left. He left the game and didn’t return.

Here’s The Athletic on that night:

“Super demoralizing at first. Can’t lie,” Williamson said of the injury. “The season had been going so well. So for that to happen just definitely was demoralizing.”

For him to then come back at the start of this season, reportedly “in the best shape of his life” — a line that I hear so frequently in NBA circles that I pretty much never believe it anymore, except for this time, when I saw what he looked like — was encouraging. He deserves a lot of credit for that.

Which made it extra depresso when he then re-injured that same hamstring after just six games this year. He’s been out since. Demoralizing indeed.

What to make of all this? My take is: he didn’t do himself any favors in his first few years in the league, and while we’ve yet to see whether he’s truly turned a corner, he seems to be trying. Sadly, though, it remains a fair question whether his body will allow him to make good on that.

Taking all that into account, Zion presents one of the more challenging case studies that I can recall. He is simultaneously one of the most talented players in the league — and athletes in the world, might I add — and among its very least reliable. The guy who plays basketball like a nose tackle with a jetpack is still in there, you would think/hope.

Rival front offices are reportedly asking after him, which seems right to me. Could just be Bobby Marks firing up the trade machine, but it’s hard not to get excited at the prospect of Zion on the Warriors.

I don’t think that’ll happen, because I don’t think the Pelicans are trading him. My guess is they’re not moving on from their star, at least for the time being, which also seems right to me.

The baggage is there, but guys with Zion’s talent get and frankly deserve more shots than most. He’s still just 24, after all. There’s time yet for this all to pan out.

And that’s what I find most interesting about Zion right at this moment. It’s how perfectly he illustrates one of the things that makes sports such a strange exercise in hope vs. reason.

‘Potential’ is the dirty word that fuels so much of fandom and prognostication. Your team sucks, huh? Well hey, at least you’ve got a high draft pick. Your team drafted high and still sucks, huh? Well, maybe he’ll pan out. One of them at least.

New Orleans is in a weird spot. They know their guy is good. They even know that the team can be good with him as the guy, which, to be clear, is not the same as the first thing. They know a lot, maybe too much, about Zion Williamson.

What they don’t know is where this will end up, and neither do we. Do you bet on the talent, knowing that you, New Orleans, don’t have any shot at a guy of his caliber on the open market? Or do you accept the well is already poisoned, so you try and start the painful process of rebuilding, like you did the last time with Anthony Davis, by refilling the coffers and playing for tomorrow?

Tough call. I know what the NBA’s rooting for. The league would greatly benefit from both Zion and his draft neighbor, Ja Morant, getting their shit together and becoming the stars they’re supposed to be.

There aren’t very many players whose success could have an outsize impact on the success of the league altogether, but I kinda think those two — who, unlike most young stars these days, happen to be American — are such examples.

Zion in particular was once thought to be the next face of the league. That seems unlikely now, but by no means is that door totally shut. That’s a crazy thing to say, I freely admit. But he’s still that talented. The list of people who even have a small chance at that is very, very short. He’s on it.

He could be a real guy. He could be the guy. You know. Potentially.

🏀 The Bucks are looking mighty good ever since I tried to bury them six weeks ago. They’ve clearly found something, and I’m officially prepared to be wrong on them, even if I don’t quite believe they’re a real threat to unseat Boston. If they keep defending like this, though, on top of these dominating performances that you know Giannis can give you, you can make up a lot of ground. Plus? I love me some AJ Green. Not that one. Dairy Bird, people! Dairy Bird.

🏈 The Falcons are similarly ready to admit they were wrong on Kirk Cousins. Getting benched less than one year into a four-year, $180M deal is crazy, but I guess we know why they drafted Michael Penix Jr. now…? Were they always harboring some doubts on ol’ Kirk? In any case, he’s gotta be on his way out, so… where to? Cleveland? New York…? Indianapolis………?

🏈 Why Indy? Maybe this, which may be the single worst play I’ve seen since that Jakobi Meyers debacle a few years ago. I was about to question it, but then I watched it. That second one still wins. That said, the Anthony Richardson experience is getting worse. So again I ask: can anyone play quarterback! Anyone at all!

🏈 Are we ready for this inaugural 12-team CFP? I know I said everyone was bad and all, but this is a fun slate. Gimme… Texas, Penn State, Notre Dame, and Tennessee on the upset. Why not! Live a little!

⚾ Bear with me for a visit to our St. Louis baseball corner. Two things.

1.) Very annoyed that Kyle Tucker is the newest Chicago Cub, already foreseeing the exact way that Kyle Tucker will torment me as a Cub. He’ll be great. Damnit.

2.) Rather confused that Nolan Arenado didn’t want to be an Astro. That’s his right, I’m just saying. I’m confused. Methinks the 3B doth protest too much.