Zion Williamson, still out with hamstring injury, says he will return to Pelicans when 'I feel like Zion'
Zion Williamson hasn't played an NBA game since Jan. 2, and if recent reports are to be believed, won't be playing again any time soon.
A day after it was reported that the New Orleans Pelicans believe Williamson is nowhere close to a return, the team had its All-Star forward speak with the media for the first time since the All-Star break to address his health.
Williamson said he had progressed enough that he is physically fine, but said he wouldn't return until he feels like himself again:
"Physically, I'm fine, now it's just a matter of when I feel like Zion. I know the atmosphere I'd be entering based off playoff experience, now it's just a matter of when I feel like Zion."
When asked if there were any specific benchmarks he needed, Williamson said there weren't and reiterated the "feel like Zion" line. He later indicated it was more of mental challenge of not hesitating before making certain moves, which he felt would hurt the team more than his absence:
"When I go to make certain moves, there is that hesitation. Sometimes there's not and sometimes there is. I understand the magnitude of these games coming up and I don't want to be out there hesitating or doing something that may affect my team in a bad way."
Williamson said it would be a "collective decision" on when he is ready to play.
It has been a miserable stretch of time for Williamson and anyone with investment in him. The former first overall pick was playing well enough to earn an All-Star start this year, but then he went down with the hamstring injury on Jan. 2.
Since then, it has been a slog of delays. The Pelicans initially said he would be reevaluated in three weeks, but then they took a month before saying he would be reevaluated again after the All-Star break. Less than a week later, he was pronounced out for multiple weeks after aggravating the injury, and then he was given two more weeks the next month.
The Pelicans finally said Williamson had returned to on-court activities on March 22, but would still be out for two more weeks. There was still hope he could be playing again in time for the play-in tournament, but that ship sailed two weeks later.
No one has disliked the process more than Williamson:
“The s*** sucks. I don’t know how else to say it. The s*** sucks. I love this game. I say it over and over. For those people who think I just want to sit on the sideline, just to sit over there, I don’t know why people think that. Nah, it sucks. I just want to be playing basketball. For real.”
If the Pelicans don't make it out of the play-in tournament, Williamson will sit at 114 regular season games and zero postseason games played in four seasons since he was drafted. Even with all of the above frustrations, his 29 games played this year are the second-highest total of his career.
That wouldn't be what the Pelicans were hoping for when they landed him as a much-hyped prospect, and it's definitely not what they want to see once he begins playing his five-year, $193 million contract extension.
