It’s no secret that 21-year-old Zion Williamson has a huge weight problem. Even before he played a single game in the league, there were concerns about how his body would hold up over the course of a long, 82-game season.
Over the past two years, those concerns have only intensified. After playing a combined 85 games over his first two seasons, Zion has yet to play a single minute of this current campaign after undergoing surgery in the offseason for a fractured right foot.
In a recent picture of the young star, he didn’t look in the best of shape and many fans were quick to point that out.
https://twitter.com/TheNBACentral/status/1467709739031273481
Over the following few days, fans would go crazy trying to guess his current weight, but ESPN’s Tim MacMahon seems to have found the answer.
According to his sources, Zion is at 330 pounds right now, which puts him among the heaviest players in NBA history.
“The number I’ve heard from several places about Zion is 70 pounds higher than 260. You do the math.”
zach lowe was FLABBERGASTED https://t.co/5xSYHTXy5r pic.twitter.com/vPNaKEktS0
— 💆🏽♂️ (@godspeedbrother) December 7, 2021
As the 1st pick in the 2019 Draft, Williamson was given the keys of the Pelicans’ franchise almost immediately Despite his early injury struggles, he has shown he can be a star player with career averages of 25.7 points, 7 rebounds, and 3.2 assists on 60.4% shooting.
It remains to be seen if Zion can play at that level consistently, but it might be a while before we see him try.
Amid concerns about his health, some are calling for him to sit for the entire season.
“Shut him down,” Kendrick Perkins said on NBA Today. “There’s no reason to even bring him back. The Pelicans are not going anywhere. We all know that it’s more to the foot. It’s more about Zion not being in shape. Go get some dietitian, get some things together in-house with Zion, get him to get his body right, and bring him back next year.”
With no word yet on when we’ll see Zion again, we can only speculate on what’s going on with him and the Pelicans franchise.
But at 7-19 overall, time is running out for the team to salvage this season. Unless Williamson returns soon, their hole may become far too deep to climb out of.
At this point, all we can do is wait and see how it all plays out…
