So Zion Williamson has another knee injury.
It's the third such issue that Williamson has encountered over the last year, with the first instance taking place back in February at Duke while his shoe exploded and the second occurrence rearing its ugly head in Summer League when Williamson had his knee banged.
Let's just all hope that the New Orleans Pelicans rookie phenom is okay, because this is scary stuff.
More than likely, the injury isn't too severe, as Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reported on Friday morning. We don't know the exact details yet, but it's probably just a minor sprain or something of the sort, but that doesn't make it any less concerning.
This is a 6-foot-7, nearly 300-pound freak of nature who relies almost exclusively on his inhuman explosiveness, and if he ends up having chronic knee problems, his NBA career could go the path of Derrick Rose rather than Charles Barkley.
Williamson puts a ton of force on his knees whenever he rises for a slam and then lands from it, much like Rose did during his prime. The key difference here is that Williamson is 100 pounds heavier than Rose, so that force is that much more devastating.
Many have said that Williamson is the most intriguing NBA prospect we have seen since LeBron James entered the professional ranks back in 2003, and some have compared the Duke product to Barkley, who was an athletic freak himself during his younger days.
But in order for Williamson to reach that lofty potential, he is obviously going to have to stay healthy, and while he hasn't really suffered any truly serious injuries yet, you can't help but worry about his future based on his knees have held up (or not held up) thus far.
Chalk the first injury up to a freak accident and the second one up to bad luck, but this third issue is a bit more unsettling due to the fact that it is just “soreness,” which is something that is typical for a 33-year-old veteran; not a teenager.
Hopefully, Williamson will be just fine and will be able to get back on the floor relatively soon, but this is not the news we wanted to hear less than a week before the start of the 2019-20 campaign.
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