Zion Williamson is one of the best young power forwards in the league, and there’s no doubt that he’s a dominant player when fully healthy. He averaged 27.0 PPG, 7.2 RPG, and 3.7 APG during the 2020-21 season, showing his insane athleticism and superstar potential.
During the 2021-22 season, Zion Williamson was forced to miss the whole year due to a foot injury. In an interview with Tres Dean of GQ, Zion Williamson revealed that he dealt with “hate and pain” from a lot of fans due to his injury, claiming that “it’s been a lot” to experience that.
“It’s been a lot. I can sit here and explain it, but nobody will really be able to feel it the way I did. My foot was broken and I couldn’t magically heal it. It hurt, because I love the game of basketball. But because of it I was experiencing hate and pain from people I don’t know every day, and it started to wear on me.”
There is no doubt that Zion Williamson dealt with a lot of criticism for missing games last season. A lot of people notably criticized him for his weight at the time of his injury, and, unfortunately, Williamson dealt with that almost daily. Hopefully, we see Zion Williamson have a dominant scoring year next season and prove all the haters wrong.
The New Orleans Pelicans notably made the playoffs this year under Brandon Ingram’s leadership, even without Zion Williamson playing a single game. There is no doubt that the Pelicans have surrounded Zion Williamson with an elite young core, and if he can become that superstar-level player, they will be among the playoff teams in the Western Conference. Hopefully, we see everything come together for Zion Williamson and the team next year, and it would be amazing to see them make a deep playoff run.
