Zion Williamson Will Play For New Orleans Pelicans This Season, Stepfather Believes

Topline

New Orleans Pelicans forward Zion Williamson’s stepfather expects the young star to play this season, he told a Louisiana sports talk show Tuesday, following a year-long absence due to a right foot fracture—welcome news for the Pelicans if true, as the team is just days away from possibly facing single-elimination in the NBA’s play-in tournament.

Key Facts

“I expect him to play,” Williamson’s stepfather Lee Anderson told the Jordy Culotta Show, a Baton Rouge-based sports talk podcast, adding, “If you were to ask Zion, I’m sure he would probably say the same thing.”

Anderson clarified he was not speaking for the team, and that the organization is considering the “long haul” when it comes to the health of its 21-year-old superstar, who made his first All-Star game last season as a second-year player averaging 27 points per game.

Anderson pushed back on the reports of tension between Williamson’s camp and the Pelicans, saying he doesn’t “know where the comments or the rumblings or the misunderstandings came from,” adding that Williamson and his family are “enjoying New Orleans.”

The Pelicans’ front office expected Williamson, who broke his right foot in the offseason last summer, to be ready to play by the start of the 2021-22 season in October following successful surgery, but his return has been delayed several times due to an unexpectedly slow rehabilitation process.

Williamson has been cleared for 1-on-1 training, and traveled with the Pelicans on their most recent road trip, according to ESPN.

The Pelicans, who hold the No. 9 seed in the Western Conference with a 34-44 record, are battling for position in the NBA’s play-in tournament with just four games remaining in the regular season.

Key Background

Williamson has missed 137 of a possible 222 games throughout his first three seasons in the NBA due to injuries. While he’s already proven to be a budding superstar, putting up numbers not seen since Shaquille O’Neal, some analysts believe his size (the 6’6 forward reportedly weighed 330 pounds in December) makes him prone to injury. Williamson has reportedly been distant from the team, and some critics believe he will leave New Orleans in free agency.

Chief Critic

J.J. Redick, Williamson’s former teammate and now analyst at ESPN, described Williamson as a “detached teammate” in New Orleans: “There’s a responsibility that you have as an athlete when you play a team sport to be fully invested. … We have not seen that from Zion,” Redick said on ESPN in February. Redick criticized Williamson for not immediately speaking with and welcoming guard C.J. McCollum after the Pelicans acquired him at the trade deadline in February. McCollum confirmed he did eventually speak with Williamson.