Zion Williamson took a lot of flack for not being able to suit up for the New Orleans Pelicans‘ last stretch due to injury (again). Apart from missing the latter part of the season, the young superstar was also forced to sit out his team's Play-In tournament loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, which officially put an end to their 2022-23 campaign.

Zion is making headlines again right now after a recent photo of the former No. 1 overall pick went viral. In it, Williamson looks surprisingly slim. And it looks as if he's lost a bit of weight since the last time we saw him on the court.

Fitness has always been an issue with the oft-injured Pelicans star. And Zion's weight has been one of his biggest struggles throughout his career. However, it seems like he's put in a lot of work over the past few weeks to shed off the extra pounds he put on during his most recent injury spell.

Unsurprisingly, this recent development has led to a lot of buzz on social media. Unfortunately for Zion and the Pelicans, the mean streets of Twitter aren't buying the hype.

 

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Graphic: David Griffin and Trajan Langdon saying "We're waiting" while Brandon Ingram looks dejected (head down) in the background. Maybe add 0-2 to show Pelicans are down in the series.

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There are a few commenters that believe that Zion Williamson is in line for a breakout season in 2023-24. But to be honest, the general buzz is that this is nothing more than false hope. You can't really blame the fans for feeling this way about the Pelicans star due to the fact that he's missed so many games throughout his career. I guess they'll believe it when they see it.