Zion Williams After Oden Another Heartbreaking "If" in the NBA

In the spotlight of the NBA, few players, like Zion Williams, combine ultimate talent and ultimate fragility so cruelly.

When the 2019 No. 1 pick crushed the basket at Duke University, he was praised as the "next LeBron" - his bare foot 1.98 meters of body carrying 129 kilograms, but he has a terrifying run-up run-up of 118 cm, and his height is even higher than that of the dunk champion LaVin. Nike's Air Jordan can't wait to sell a seven-year, $75 million endorsement contract, second only to James that year. The league and fans are waiting for breath, and an epoch-making beast is about to be released.

However, five years later, Zion's name is no longer linked to "dominant power", but becomes a regular visitor to injury reports. He played only 85 games in three seasons, but missed 141 games - his attendance rate was less than 38%. When the second-place winner Morant (although off-court trouble) led the Grizzlies to the playoffs, Zion was undergoing his fourth major operation in his career, and the Pelicans' patience was exhausted. The cornerstone of the collapse: the death spiral of injury and weight

Zion's NBA script has been cast from the beginning. In October 2019, he had not yet stepped on the regular season floor and lay in the operating room and underwent repair of the meniscus on the lateral right knee. This signal was selectively ignored by the excited alliance, after all, Wade can still be the god of the meniscus removal. But people deliberately overlooked the fact that Zion weighed only 2.24 meters below Boban, which weighed 129 kilograms, but performed the violent aesthetic of flying and escaping the earth with the center tonnage.

Rehabilitation becomes a catalyst for Zion's weight. During the 2021 right foot fracture season reimbursement period, his weight exceeded 150 kilograms (300 kilograms), ranking first in the weight list of active players. The Pelicans doctor was frightened to find that the monster who had jumped vertically for more than one meter had even slowed down his basic running. What's more ironic is that Nike has already put pressure on him to lose weight due to concerns about the shrinking endorsement value - commercial capital smelled the crisis earlier than the team. In the 2022 preseason, Zion made a 90-degree twist in his left ankle after a normal breakthrough. The camera captures the moment when his ankle is deformed and becomes a cruel metaphor for his career: the miracle of human kinematics was ultimately defeated by gravity. When the Pelicans made the playoffs with Ingram and McCollum, Zion's name became a silence in the locker room that was silenced. The collapse of trust: From non-selling to trading chips, Zion's value reached its peak in 2021. The All-Star season with an average of 27 points and 7.2 rebounds and a 61% shooting percentage make the Pelicans prepare to receive a maximum salary of 223 million in five years. But the plot then took a sharp turn. When Zion's team asked for a full guarantee contract, the Pelicans flatly refused. The team learned "Oden's lesson" and giving the Glass man a long appointment is equivalent to committing suicide. The negotiations were deadlocked, and the Zion camp even let the news "want to go to New York", while the Pelicans did not do any retention PR. The former non-sale products were removed from the protection list before the 2022 transaction deadline.

The joining of new player CJ McCollum is like a demon mirror: "I haven't communicated directly with Zion yet," he admitted in front of the camera. When the team fought for the playoffs, Zion was away from the arena and teammates, but he and his girlfriend frequently appeared on social media - a 150 kilogram weight in the same frame with his pure and petite girlfriend, the scene was warm but hurt Pelicans fans.

Overrated talent? The fatal injury of technical shortcomings

Even during the healthy period, Zion's game also had structural flaws, with a career three-point shooting percentage of only 32%, and he had no three-pointers in 12 consecutive games, including zero shots. The offensive end relies on strong face frame breaks, with a free throw shooting percentage of only 66.7%, making it easy to be targeted locks in the playoffs. The defense switching ability that he was proud of in college was corrupted by weight and slackness in the NBA. In 2023, his defensive efficiency fell to 201st in the league, and he often watched his opponent shoot when assisting defense. Compared with Antetokounmpo's development of projection ability during the same period, Zion is still at the stage of "just relying on his body to make a living". Barkley suggested that he learn back-to-body + medium-distance technology, but his body has lost space for technological transformation after gaining weight.

When the Pelicans started the reconstruction, Clippers owner Ballmer threw out a $89 million lifeline for four years. This smart contract is full of protection clauses, fully guaranteed in the first two years and partial guaranteed in the next two years. But the Clippers seem to have forgotten their "injury curse", and the vitrification history of Griffin, Leonard and George is repeating. Zion may form the theoretical Big Three with Leonard and Harden, but the reality is suffocating: the three cores have missed 237 games in the past three years. The Clippers fantasized that he filled the gap in the No. 4 position (average of only 12.8 points per game last season), but chose to ignore the devastating pressure on the knee of 150 kilograms.

Zion's career was like a grand irony. When Morant, who was in the same class, was suspended for live broadcasting with guns, Zion was imprisoned by his body - the more dazzling his talent, the heavier the shackles were. Nike once labeled him as the "next Jordan", but eventually he became an "anti-Jordan" existence: the latter conquered age with self-discipline, but he lost to the young due to indulgence. The Pelicans Medical Research Team once pointed out: "Zion's bones bear 1.8 times the impact of ordinary players", but scientific data cannot stop capital's fantasy about the money tree. In the summer of 2025, Zion's name returned to the headlines, the Clippers bet on 89 million bets on a "if", while Pelicans fans swept the screen on social media: "At least we have had a healthy Yingge." The cruel truth of the NBA has never changed. When talent became a display, the legend finally became a footnote in the medical report.