It has been a roller coaster career for New Orleans star Zion Williamson. When he has been on the court, he has been dominant, but the issue has been his injuries. Zion has been in and out of the lineup since the Pelicans drafted him due to his injuries and has had to deal with it consistently. He is currently dealing with an injury, too, and he even said the lowest point of his career was missing his third season because of it.
Zion Williamson visited ESPN's “NBA Today” and spoke with Malika Andrews for a long conversation, revealing that the hardest part of his career was missing his entire third season due to a broken foot. It was a low point because he was taking shots from all over the place about his weight, and he wanted to focus on basketball first and foremost, but he could not.
“The most difficult point was when I missed my third year with a broken foot. … There was a lot of criticism on my weight, my care for the game. … I was really low because I just wanted to play basketball,” Williamson explained.
Williamson was actually experiencing the healthiest time of his career, playing in 35 consecutive games and 45 in total this season. Still, he recently sprained his ankle in a win over the Jazz on Saturday. Despite being healthy, he’s averaging a career-low 21.5 points while tying a career-low with 5.8 rebounds per game.
For his career, Williamson has played in 259 games, while missing a total of 296. Now, that number is only going to rise after his latest ankle sprain.
It is also worth noting that he’s in the third season of a five-year, $197.2 million deal with the Pelicans. He’s making $39.4 million this year and is set to make $42.2 million next season, and $44.9 million for the 2027-28 season.
Interim coach James Borrego said Williams “tweaked the ankle,” but didn’t have an immediate update on the severity of the injury.
“Hopefully, it’s nothing serious, and we’ll have him back out there very soon,” Borrego said.
