New Orleans Pelicans general manager David Griffin is hoping to use his past experiences with LeBron James as a guide in Zion Williamson's development.
No player has entered the NBA with more hype than James, who was labeled as “The Chosen One” coming out of St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Akron, Ohio. Zion, with his 4.4 million followers on Instagram, is the first rookie to rival this level of popularity.
The media has followed the Pelicans closely since draft night, and they'll likely continue to do so as the season progresses. Major television networks wanted in on the Zion action as well, which led to 30 nationally-televised games for New Orleans.
It's a scenario that Griffin is very familiar with, as the media followed the Cavs everywhere when James was on the team.
“We are on national TV 30 times this year in large measure because of the Zion phenomenon,” Griffin said, via The Undefeated. “Having been a part of a team with a phenomenon with LeBron, Kyrie [Irving] and Kevin [Love], it’s certainly been a learning experience that I hope we can utilize. The mistakes we made then, I hope we don’t make now. We didn’t ignore the noise well as a team. There was so much scrutiny that you didn’t know was going to come or proactively prepare for.
“But now we can be in front of a lot of things, although you wouldn’t know it by the way I handled the injury situation. But you control actively being in front of something.”
Unfortunately, Williamson is expected to be out of commission for six to eight weeks as he recovers from a meniscus tear in his right knee. The ailment forced him to miss opening night, which was disappointing for a lot of NBA fans.
Hopefully, Zion will be back on the court sooner rather than later. The Pelicans won't rush the process, though, as the team has a lot invested in his future.
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