Zion Williamson of the New Orleans Pelicans is no stranger to injuries.
He missed most of his rookie season after suffering an injury in the preseason, and had to miss all of last season after again getting hurt in the offseason.
Missing an entire year is not an easy thing for a young athlete to go through and Zion Williamson has been candid about the toll it took on him mentally.
Yesterday, the NBA got the unfortunate news that #2 pick Chet Holmgren will miss the entirety of the 2022-23 season after damaging ligaments in an offseason Pro-Am game:
Holmgren joins a list of high draft picks who lost their rookie years to injuries, including Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons and Blake Griffin. https://t.co/EYNVgA1bYk
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) August 25, 2022
He joined a high-profile list of players who had to miss their entire rookie season, and though Zion Williamson did play in his first year (24 games) he can definitely feel empathy for what Chet Holmgren is going trough.
Zion Williamson can feel Chet Holmgren’s pain
There is nothing worse for an athlete than to suffer a season-ending injury before the season has even started.
All of the hard work, preparation and excitement goes down the drain, as Zion knows all too well after missing all of last season.
Like Zion, Holmgren suffered a foot injury, which means he not only won’t be able to play with his teammates, but he’ll be limited in workouts and will have to just sit helplessly watching his team play without him, unable to even practice or work on his game in any meaningful way.
Also like Zion, Holmgren is going to have to read and hear the endless talk on social media about how he is “injury prone,” and how he’ll never finish a season in the NBA. Merciless fans will take their victory laps, saying “I told you so!” in Zion’s case, saying he is too heavy and out of shape and in Holmgren’s case, too skinny to be in the NBA.
This tag will continue to follow both of these players until they can prove that they can stay on the floor for an entire season and fans will always judge and speculate what they could and should have done differently to avoid it.
I hope both Zion Williamson and Chet Holmgren come back strong and prove the critics wrong, but until they do, they are going to have to put up with the doubts about their health.
No one understands what Chet Holmgren is going through better than Zion, and I hope the big guy reaches out to him to offer some advice on how to handle what is coming.