Zion Williamson Is The NBA’s Saddest Story

Zion Williamson Is The NBA’s Saddest Story

Zion is the most unique athlete I’ve coached a Duke Zion yes sir a Human Highlight Reel a force that defies the laws of physics an athletic Marvel that bewilders even the brightest Sports scientist he won the wooden award scored 81 points in the ACC tournament most by

A freshman in ACC history and now is making that walk to start his professional career five-star Prospect the national college player of the year as a freshman and the Atlantic Coast Conference athlete of the year and tournament MVP the consensus number one overall pick by a landslide nobody had this much

Confidence on a player to be the guaranteed first pick since LeBron James in 2003 for years the media was all over him it was Zion this and Zion that his name was all over the news even my friends who don’t watch basketball knew his name Z Williamson was deemed the

Most anticipated athlete across all sports because nobody has seen anything like him before at 6’6 nearly 300 lb the dude moved like a freight train but somehow was just as agile and Nimble able to contort his body like a guard but finished like a center it wasn’t

Just his brute strength and power he had the handles and skills to go along with it compacted in that Unstoppable force of a body sadly Zion’s NBA career is not going how we all thought it would while we still see flashes of what makes him so special there’s a lot of things

Holding him back and as the years went by he’s becoming less and less relevant in fact he’s become a meme now some of his escapades are ridiculous and I feel like nobody even takes him seriously anymore as he watches his peers leap ahead of him Zion has fallen behind you

Add on you know there’s a rift between him and the Pelicans organization which I’ll dive into later in this video how’s it going folks my name’s Andy and today let’s take a look at the downfall of a once in a generation athlete despite Zion’s gargantuan size

Prior to coming to the NBA he didn’t really suffer any debilitating injuries this isn’t like a Greg Odin situation who everyone knew had a bad history of knee problems prior to coming to the NBA Zion’s only notable injury was you just saw it it was a freak accident he

Suffered a knee sprain because his foot burst through his Nike sneakers and it caused him to slip y’all remember this Nike stock market value dropped by over 1 billion after this incident it’s crazy how this even happened it just shows the force that Zion moves with the thing is

When he returned he was better than ever in fact in his first game back he scored 29 Points on 13 for 13 shooting it was the best shooting performance in the history of Duke and the history of the ACC tournament so I’d say he recovered quite

Well as he entered the NBA draft that injury just flew past everyone’s Minds as you all know the major concern of him back then and even today is his weight he entered the NBA in 2019 listed at 284 lb at that time that was the second heaviest listed weight behind only boban

Marianovich who’s 7’3 as a 6’6 19-year-old that’s freaking insane Zion was just he was too heavy for his body to withstand the wear and tear of the NBA the first red flag occurred before the season even started the Pelicans released a statement that Zion would undergo surgery to repair a torn

Meniscus but what torn meniscus we never saw him get injured it wasn’t any specific play or possession that caused it it was a gradual progression through the course of multiple workouts that caused him to develop severe knee soreness which led to this injury this was very alarming because this time it

Wasn’t a freak accident when you tear a ligament like this it means your knees can’t carry the burden of your body on the bright side Zion made a full recovery and in his second season his game truly came together that explosiveness and Agility in his frame

Is unheard of and he stormed through the the season Zion registered the eighth highest points per game on the eighth best field goal percentage he captivated the audience and fans were in awe of him this is the Zion we all imagined he could be and for a while he was living

Up to those gigantic expectations sadly it would be shortlived over the summer he suffered a Jones fracture on his foot and it forced him to get surgery the Pelicans were optimistic he could return in two or three 3 months that’s the recovery time for the average player but Zion is not

The average player A Jones fracture on a guy as heavy as he is that’s very concerning you always got to be cautious so the team kept pushing back his timetable to return it also wasn’t healing properly and eventually that meant he’d be out the entire season at

This point it’s getting a bit dicey three seasons in and Zion has missed significant time with many of his supporters believing he needed to lose weight to put less pressure on his joints and feet it makes sense right but Zion surprisingly gained weight since entering the NBA according to his former

Trainer who took a jab at the Pelicans now it got serious the team started to stress the importance of him to lose weight but it’s hard to get through to him it’s really hard to get rid of bad eating habits that’s been there his entire life I’m sure a lot of

You guys can relate too regardless even after sitting out an entire season the Pelicans still felt comfortable enough to throw him the bag in the summer of 2022 Zion signed a colossal contract extension worth nearly $200 million it was a gamble but one they had to take even with all his injuries and

Weight problems keeping him off the court he is their franchise player or at least he’s the only hope the franchise has of becoming relevant since then he’s had even more injury problems like you know his hamstring blew up his knees were still experiencing pain it’s a NeverEnding

Cycle of rehab and recovery for Zion who missed the bulk of another season and that’s when the tension started to build according to this article by the athletic the final 3 years of his contract are not guaranteed anymore because he missed more than 22 games in

The 2022 to 23 season if they wanted to the Pelicans can wave him as early as 2024 and not have his salary count towards the cap because of this they hold all the cards I’m sure when Zion signed this deal he knew the consequences he knew he

Had to work on rehabbing to recover and get back to playing perhaps the Pelicans believed if Zion was at risk of losing money he would try harder to get into better shape and return to the court it’s been a struggle and old habits die hard it makes this giant contract seem

More manageable and w less risky for the Pelicans if all that criteria was not included it would probably be the worst contract in the league just because of how many games he’s missed this is why in recent times Zion has expressed his discontent with the organization it mainly has to do with

His injury management and all the contract stipulations he’s not qualifying for it’s kind of a conflict of interest Zion wants to play to meet his contract criteria but the Pelicans need him to rest to maintain his health but also want him to play cuz they need

To win it’s a big mess they’ve also buted heads when discussing his diet and programmed to get back into game shape as this is still the biggest concern nowadays the media has been piling on Zion for still being out of shape I mean if you see the news about

Zion today versus Zion a few years back it’s a world of difference he was once treated almost like a Divine Godlike figure a once in a generation athlete with all the talent and potential in the world now everyone is clowning him not just for his weights but his escapades

With you know an adult actress and only fans model I’m sure you guys know the story there plus even when he does play he hasn’t gotten much better compared to his rookie season there used to be comparisons to Charles Barkley but Zion is nowhere near the rebounder Chuck was

In fact it’s quite concerning how bad of a rebounder he is with his wide frame and jumping a ability you expect him to be better no one’s really questioned his talent before but with all the years of rehab and sitting out that has stunted his progress what does the future look

Like for Zion well on a positive note he hasn’t been missing that many games this year the Pelicans have set a new schedule for his injury management and it’s been working so far it shows that they’re still committed to having him as a future of this franchise because

Honestly they don’t have a choice they got lucky with just a 6% chance of getting the number one pick to get him it was a blessing the greatest Prospect in years landed in their laps yet they have nothing to show for it no deep playoff runs not many winning seasons

And now surrounded by media drama and trade rumors it’s too early to give up on him but these days a player can request a trade and sit out until it happens so if Zion is not happy here the Pelicans won’t have a choice they have the leverage but Zion’s value is not as

High as it used to be it’s not all bad though cuz they’re not a bad team and progress is being made slowly he’s feeling better now and more enthusiastic than he’s ever been what does it mean now that you know you learned that the crowd was really behind

You with the pregame introduction was do it mean that you still got that good home support uh it means a lot um I’ve said it over the years you know Drew Brees and a bunch of other New Orleans guys that were here before me said the

Same thing if you love the city which I very much do uh it’ll love you back so to the city to the fans thank you I’m going to do my best not to let y’all down anyway That’s all folks thank you everyone so much for watching I hope

Youall enjoyed the video and of course as always I’ll see you next time Peace

Zion Williamson was once considered the greatest prospect of his generation. His combination of ridiculous athleticism and agility in the body of a 6’6″ 300 pound player is unheard of. What exactly happened over the course of his NBA career?

I make all kinds of NBA videos which include analysis, player stories, countdowns, and mysteries. Make sure to leave a like and subscribe if you enjoyed this video!

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