The New Orleans Pelicans won the NBA Draft Lottery and the rights to draft Zion Williamson. The reactions from Pelicans fans were outrageously positive, but several national media’s takes were positively outrageous. Still, this city should be a great fit for the budding star.
Zion Williamson will play in a New Orleans Pelicans uniform next season. David Griffin’s good luck charms paid off; the Pelicans do not have to trade Anthony Davis for Zion. The NBA’s silly season just got even more ridiculous, and so did some of the negative reactions from Big Media talking heads.
In the first 24 hours after the NBA Lottery bomb imploded the scheduled offseason narrative, the national media showed some bias. Instead of focusing on the realistic scenarios after the Pelicans won the first pick, the media collectively pitched a fit. They did not get the story angles they were hoping for, so they turned negative on the city of New Orleans, with little merit.
It all started when Rachel Nichols went on SportsCenter with Scott Van Pelt to say Zion “looked like he had been hit by a truck” immediately after the NBA Draft broadcast. Nichols Emmy Award winning show The Jump then pushed ahead with the narrative, saying Zion could force his way to a different team.
Bomani Jones ended High Noon with a quick clip of the New Orleans Pelicans’ staff room reaction during the NBA Lottery broadcast. Their primary observation? Jones stated, “hard to find any packed room in New Orleans with only three black people.” The comment is at the 21:45 mark, in the first segment coming back from commercial, and he mentioned only some of the men, missing all women of color to the left of the table.
Not only should he have paused the video to count, he should have took pause to think before making that comment. New Orleans is one of the only professional sports teams to have back to back minority coaches. The last regime was led by a black General Manager. Inclusion is not the problem in New Orleans. Bomani fell victim to cynicism and small sample size theater. Jones was still wrong.
Not two minutes later, Papi and Dan Lebatard opened Highly Questionable with the lead tag of “No Love for NOLA.” Lebatard passed the buck just to laugh at the Knicks’ dashed hopes, barely recognizing the Pelicans’ existence in the affair. Not for the first time, Papi doubled down on degrading Knicks fans, calling out Stephen A. Smith.
Mina Kimes made some Pelicans and Saints connections and chalked up the lotto win to deserved karma for the NFC Championship game. She also said she was a fan of chaos and was disappointed with the draft lottery. Let that sink in, as a take. Granted, the whole idea of Highly Questionable is fun banter, which grants them some leniency here.
Stephen A. Smith, unabashed Knicks fan that he is, had a bad day.
Smith will yell through next week with the Knickbocker Blues still being sang by Dolan. In New Orleans, we’ll enjoy the blues happily, despite any type of drafts. It could be the NBA draft, hurricane evacuation plan drafts, cheap happy hour drafts, or other wise. The knee jerk reactions from the media never even developed a first draft.
Around the Horn led with some shade as well. Rather than hype the positive vibes around the city, they judged everything on short clips of canned reactions. Bill Plaschke even said it was the first time he saw Zion not smile.
Jackie MacMullen was the only voice of reason while also evoking the Basketball Gods. Who could smile after an hour of dealing with Rachel Nichols’ awkward callbacks that singled out Zion all night? ESPN’s draft lottery production sapped the energy from the room. Only the drama of the envelopes kept the night exciting.
Colin Cowherd at Fox also mentioned the nuclear option of Zion demanding a trade, or returning to Duke, just to avoid New Orleans. To be fair, he only mentioned it. He did not necessarily suggest it, but he did have this plan all laid out nicely for Zion. Cowherd hedged all bets with that statement, straddling all fences.
Attracting an audience is what matters, not the intent behind the words. Worse, the publicity from the bad takes will be seen as good business. The games we want to watch are on these same channels. Some viewers will stick around to watch the carnage of bad takes. That buzz then created is what the talking heads desire.
Cowherd offered another option, for Zion to just play with the USA national team for a year. Those are limited spots for All-NBA caliber players, not one and done guys with no team. All of Cowherd’s “mentioned, not suggested” options left Zion short $10 million dollars that the Pelicans will pay him next year.
Funny, all these talking heads can be in an outrage when NCAA players at blue blood schools cannot get paid. They then develop plans that do not pay the players as pros, unless they go to major markets that pad those broadcaster’s own paychecks. Most argued that Zion should have quit playing college ball after the shoe malfunction created such heightened injury concerns.
Zion would have to turn down $10 million to avoid New Orleans. No human in history would accept a deal of no New Orleans and no money over lots of gumbo and commas (plural) in the bank account.
Paul Pierce and Jalen Rose had some takes as dated and bad as the George Shinn era. The Pelicans deserve another shot with a star more than Pierce deserve any more air time for his confident predictions.
There was a decent chance Zion was going to be traded for Davis, depending on who won the lottery. Only Kimes mentioned this option. No one would have been disparaging the city this badly had they been able to compare Zion against Davis after a trade. The narratives would be drastically different: Davis earned his shot at a winner, Zion got to replace Davis on a decent team. Both teams make the best out of an awkward situation.
Zion WITH Davis is a problem for ESPN and FOX only because there is no drama or division for those media outlets to play up. All of their low hanging speculation articles and radio segments were voided. The easy narratives of a Davis trade demand and career-long comparisons for Zion is no longer available.
The Pelicans, under Gayle Benson’s steady hand, were not held hostage at the trade deadline. Winning the Zion sweepstakes gives New Orleans’ decision makers even more leverage.
Davis cannot make demands of New Orleans now. The NBA’s supposed heavyweights can no longer lean on Griffin until he caves in on a tepid trade haul. Benson has the final word, and plenty of patience. Jennie Buss is out of her league dealing with Gayle Benson. Their paths are as different as their actual bank accounts.
New Orleans is the NBA’s Iron Throne this offseason. The national media are little more than town gossips made at an unlikely couple possibly able to have a happy marriage, even though there is a slightly disgruntled child to deal with after the honeymoon period. The media cannot help but push those narratives which only serve their interest.
Small market stars are the face of the NBA. Giannis and Westbrook could not be any bigger as global stars, save for winning a championship. Sure, a ring in New York seems bigger in New York, but only to New York proper. The rest of the world stands united against the major market bullying tactics. Yet the Ringer wants to know if New Orleans is lonely?
lonely? Ringer don't know it but the @PelicanDebrief slack channel was packed with excited folks. Loneliest? Please. Other also ran outpost with ways less food, culture, and fun. No such thing as lonely in NOLA. Ain't no strangers down here yo, we all fam. https://t.co/6xdI3s8ntF
— Dodson, Chris Dodson (@DoingItDodson) May 15, 2019
The core of the Pelicans is still one of the best starting points for any incoming rookie star or a newly hired executive. A year ago, this same core lost a star mid-season (DeMarcus Cousins) and still swept a current conference finalist. Jrue Holiday, Zion, and Griffin should pitch Davis as a team, for the team. No past animosity or baggage.
However, they should also hold the better negotiation cards in the conversation. If Davis is non-committal, he has someone packing his outfits for him. He can pick that baggage up somewhere in the Eastern Conference.
The major outlets lost their collective minds and what’s left of their integrity in covering the New Orleans Pelicans. In the off-court poker game of the NBA, the media has shown their cards quickly. It started with constant trade articles, continued with the guilt trips for not trading Davis to a major market, and persisted with the degrading responses to New Orleans winning the NBA Lottery.
New Orleans has called that bluff. Gentry can gloat like a ill-mannered poker player and not feel the slightest bit ashamed. A small celebration, a dance jig, and some high fives is at least positive and has folks smiling. The pity party the media threw was very negative, and had folks wondering if any of these talking heads have ever even visited New Orleans. More, were Jones and Cowherd not aware of the positive changes Benson and Griffin were making?
The New Orleans Pelicans will follow David Griffin’s lead this offseason with an abundance of trust. Benson has already rubber stamped basically all staff and facility renovations. Both the team and fanbase can collectively tune out the national narratives. Collectively, they have shown to have no clue about the direction of the franchise or even the city at large. Zion Williamson, New Orleans is going to take good care of you.