After a season of turmoil and frustration for the Pels, young superstar Zion Williamson finally made his loyalties known when he signed a huge 5-year, $193 million contract with the Pelicans.
According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, the deal pleased Williamson, who was described as ‘ecstatic’ to secure such a large contract.
“Zion Williamson was ecstatic to sign this new contract to stay in New Orleans, this is a deal he wanted to get done. I think the big question this offseason was gonna be, if he does sign, will there be protections, will there be games played. There’s been a lot of injury protections you can think about. We saw the max contract Joel Embiid signed in 2017, there were a lot of protections. Games played, injuries protections that if the team wanted to get back the money they owed him on the max deal they would be able to waive him and get back the money. Sources tell me there are protections in Zion Williamson’s max extension but this is a deal that he wanted to get done.”
"Zion Williamson was ecstatic to sign this new contract to stay in New Orleans.. this is a deal he wanted to get done" ~@ShamsCharania
ATTA BABY ZION #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/x7bxLXzPcC
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) July 5, 2022
It was smart for the Pels to include some injury protections in the contract. Over the past three seasons, the budding star has played a total of 85 games with practically nothing to show for the time he was on the court.
Moving forward, there are obviously some big doubts about if Williamson can stay healthy. His weight and durability have been huge matters of concern since he entered the league, and that’s not expected to change anytime soon.
But if Zion can stay on the court and play alongside CJ McCollum, Brandon Ingram, and Jonas Valanciunas, New Orleans could be in a position to make a deep playoff run for the first time in years.
