In a wild OT thriller that was hotly contested to the bitter end, the strangely surging Washington Wizards topped Zion Williamson and the New Orleans Pelicans, 117-115–iced at the free throw line by Russell Westbrook.
With less than five seconds on the clock, Westbrook went up for a mid-range jumper when he was fouled by Zion himself.
The foul itself was very controversial, and fans of Zion Williamson and the Pelicans were not happy. One of his fan accounts on Twitter was particularly vehement:
It’s somehow even worse actually. His pinkie finger slightly brushed, or flicked, Westbrook’s elbow. Imagine if Zion got calls on this level of contact pic.twitter.com/v3mAbZo1Mv
— W Zion (@24nativeson) April 17, 2021
Leave it to the fans to rage on behalf of their favorite players. Meanwhile, Zion himself shared his own thoughts on the game-deciding foul (his sixth) after the game. Pelicans writer Jim Eichenhofer shared his response on Twitter:
“For the people who know me, it's very tough. The last thing I want to do is fail my teammates. In the moment, that's what it felt like, sending him to the foul line,” Williamson shared
Honestly, this is a little crazy. Only a sophomore in the NBA, Williamson is already posting eye-popping stats for the Pelicans, scoring almost 27 points per game on a bananas 60 percent true shooting. He is one of the great young phenoms in the league, his jersey is one of the best sellers in the entire NBA, and he is already one of the premiere faces of basketball.
Of all people in the world that deserve to be outraged by this controversial foul, it should be him. The fact that he reacted the way he did is incredible for the league and the Pelicans. They seem to have the rarest combination of star qualities in their young phenom: all of the talent in the world, potential as big as a skyscraper, with seemingly none of the arrogance that usually comes with it.
Kudos to Zion. Not many NBA players can be both a superstar and a class act, and though he may not know it right now, he walked away from the game as a winner.
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