Zion Williamson’s knee injury has fans on red alert in New Orleans, but there’s plenty of reasons for Pelicans faithful to calm their panic.
Game one of the 2019-2020 season was supposed to feature the defending champion Toronto Raptors taking on a potential megastar in his debut, but last night’s game lacked the arrival of Zion Williamson.
On Monday afternoon, Shams Charania of The Athletic reported that the rookie would miss the first 6-to-8 weeks of the season as he recovered from a tear in his right meniscus.
Pelicans rookie star Zion Williamson underwent arthroscopic surgery for torn meniscus in right knee and will be out 6-to-8 weeks.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) October 21, 2019
While it did hurt some of the excitement surrounding the team heading into opening night, there’s still so much to look forward to when Zion takes the floor later this year.
However, there’s been a lot of concern from basketball minds that this isn’t just a one-time injury. Considering the sheer force Zion plays with on the court, fans and former players have raised concerns.
Zion Williamson isn’t built like the textbook NBA player; he stands 6’6″, carrying 285 lbs, but moves across the court like Ricky Henderson trying to steal third in the playoffs.
What we know about Zion Williamson’s knee injury
Undergoing arthroscopic surgery to repair the meniscus in his right knee on Monday morning, Zion will not play for a short while. It’s apparently unknown when the issue actually occurred
It’s also being reported that the team does not believe the issue to be related to his weight.
Fans also know that Zion suffered an injury when his shoe exploded 36 seconds into the Duke Blue Devils’ match-up against the North Carolina Tarheels. That injury was a grade one sprain of the same right knee.
Zion recovered, leading the team to an ACC Tournament Championship and a run to the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament en route to his Naismith College Basketball Player of the Year award.
He suffered a left knee injury in his lone Summer League appearance, which held him out of the rest of the Las Vegas tournament.
The team doesn’t seem to see this as an issue conditioning, but more a matter of his physicality and athleticism biting back.
“The notion that this happened because Zion is in poor condition is asinine. He wasn’t in poor condition when he went 12 of 13 last week against Utah.” David Griffin said of Zion’s injury. “That’s not what it is. He’s just a very unique body type and certainly from a physics perspective.”
While there’s always a reason to worry about a young player’s health in the long run, the team feels good about their outlook for Zion’s future after the setback.