I recognize that what I’m talking about isn’t so much a product, but a career. I understand in some respects that this feels like cheating, but I think it’s worth exploring for one sole reason. As The NBA Rookie Draft is taking place this week, I am reminded of The Number One Pick and the weight that comes with that decision. You could be the best college basketball player in the world, and yet you’re totally in the hands of whatever team gets selected first. It’s a form of fate that can be as rewarding as it is fateful, especially when you consider how these things work.
In general, The Rookie Draft is designed to favor the lesser teams. For example, this year’s first two picks will go to The Minnesota Timberwolves and The Golden State Warriors. This is based on their performance record in the 2019/2020 season, which found The Timberwolves at No. 14 in the western division, and The Warriors finishing dead last. While the latter arguably had a terrible season due to injuries, it still stands to reason that rookies are at risk of going to a team that doesn’t know how to use them. You’ll get the experience, but the idea of jumping out of the gate as this golden child is a bit risky.
Nowhere does that seem more apparent than when dealing with Zion Williamson, then of Duke’s Blue Devils. If you followed the conversation throughout the Spring of 2019, you’d believe that he was being sold as the next LeBron James. He was this power forward with a body built like Shaquille O’Neal and the skills to show for it. By the time he made his NBA debut, he had one of the best-selling rookie jerseys. The cult of Zion was apparent, and it even came with a memorable hairstyle that included the letter ‘Z’ shaved into his hair. He was designed to be the next big thing, and part of me wonders if the pressure was too much.
Before I go forward, I just want to say that I like Williamson a lot. The New Orleans Pelicans has quickly become one of my favorite underdog teams. I believe they have one of the most compelling starting line-ups of any team, and their chemistry works for me. They may not always win, especially against the professionals, but I love that they have this heart to push themselves. Even if they got rid of coach Alvin Gentry and blew their show during The NBA Restart this season, I think they still make a strong case for coming back stronger in the 2020/2021 season. Maybe not champions status, but I imagine they will be working out the kinks.
This is a long way to say that the rookie season of Williamson was a bit of a wonky experience. He was built as a Rookie of the Year-caliber player, and yet I think that The Memphis Grizzlies’ Ja Morant was more deserving of that status. It’s not that Willamson was a bad player, but he had maybe one of the most fascinatingly off debut seasons, adding a cherry on top of the days-old cherries that made this past year an overbearing mess. Somewhere in-between Daryl Morey causing controversy with China, and Kobe Bryant dying, Williamson was waiting to impress the world.
The issue was that somewhere amid the anticipation came one of the most fateful, notorious plays in modern college basketball. In a game against North Carolina’s Tar Heels, Williamson slipped and received a Grade 1 knee sprain. Not only that, but he tore apart the sole of his Nike shoes which, and I’m not kidding, sent the company’s stock plummeting by $1.1 BILLION dollars. Want to know how much of a cult was around Zion? He could easily take down a shoe company if he wanted. More than anything, it was the moment where people suggested that he needed to move to The NBA, and thus The Number One Pick was born.
Obviously, he had a limp when accepting the honor from Adam Silver. Still, things were in place to anticipate what this kid would do next. Was he going to be like James, or was this going to be a major bust? Nobody could really tell, but given that The Pelicans had just traded Anthony Davis to The Los Angeles Lakers, they were in need of any complementary player that they could get. As Williamson spoke to a crowd of New Orleans fans via remote video, he said that he was going to make them proud.
As a result of his recovery, his exposure was limited throughout the first half of the season. However, he was obligated to play a few games as part of The NBA G-League where most of the drafted rookies got their experience over the summer. While he didn’t play every game, it’s interesting to note that one of his first at the facility in Las Vegas, NV took place on the day of a minor earthquake, thus postponing everything. It was perfect symbolism for how everything would be from this point on. During this time he would also tear his meniscus.
While players like Morant and The Miami Heat’s Tyler Herro established their careers, the word over Williamson never went away. His touted greatness was featuring in marketing, claiming that he was this amazing player. As he rolled his hands back and forth, you got the sense that he was about to lay-up on you. Though, if you wanted to amuse yourself, you could read the endless Twitter comments detailing the fact that this golden child hadn’t actually played a game. In fact, it looked like he was going to be too injured to ever play, being more a highlight on the bench than someone with these memorable shot compositions.
On January 22, 2020, Williamson finally appeared in a game against The San Antonio Spurs. By then the curiosity around him was big enough that it ended up becoming one of The Pelicans’ highest-viewed games of the season.
The thing that was most memorable to me was listening to the announcers. Early in the game, Williamson made a slam dunk. It was nothing exceptional, but it leads them to question whether or not he was in that great of shape. There was honest commentary that he needed to lose weight and get into better shape. They had doubt, even in his debut game, that he would amount to anything. And then, in a move that totally made them look like fools, he came back in the fourth quarter, proving that he had a lot of surprises to offer.
The slam dunks were enough to initiate a career, but in the fourth quarter, he surprised everyone. Over the course of 3:08 minutes, he scored 17 consecutive points, including a few three-pointers. While The Spurs won (they lost 121-117), there was an agreement that Williamson was going to be somebody to watch. His first game garnered 22 points and he was on track to have one of the best point percentages for a rookie player. When they played The Lakers, people made a big deal about comparing him to James, even anticipating what it would be like to watch the two match-ups during the game.
By the time of The NBA All-Stars, it was guaranteed that Williamson would play. While the game itself didn’t matter, a memorable part of everything was when the final quarter was spent watching The Rookies keep passing the ball around to watch Williamson (among others) shoot these impressive trick shots. It was a victory lap to a young career that would amount (even during The NBA Restart) to only 25 total games. It was an impressive run and he became a major asset to The Pelicans, but was he deserving of Rookie of the Year?
That’s one of the great questions of our time. For anyone who prefers effort, it was clear that Morant was more effective. He had been building the whole season and became an essential part of the team by the time that Williamson would start his NBA career. However, how could you argue with him when he had an impressive Points Per Game average of 22.5? That takes someone that The Pelicans had strong confidence in. Still, at only 20 games (prior to The Restart), was this someone just coming hot out of the gate?
Of course, there was The NBA Shutdown, which prompted an uncertain future in March. Given that everyone was starting to heat up, The Finals quickly approaching, it shut down everything and made this victory lap a lot more underwhelming. Would they even finish the season? The cult of Zion was cut short, and it was looking like it would be a while before anyone saw him become the great star that we knew him to be.
The debate of Williams vs. Morant continued (because what else were you going to talk about in quarantine?) to the point that people were anticipating a match-up during The NBA Restart between The Pelicans and The Grizzlies, watching The Rookies duke it out. At the end of the day, Williams played only five games and The Pelicans went home unceremoniously, failing to perform at the level that many anticipated. The Grizzlies meanwhile barely missed The Playoffs in a pivotal game against The Portland Trailblazers. By this point, Morant won Rookie of the Year in an almost unanimous vote, with only one vote going to Williamson.
While every person who played during the season deserves some credit for adapting to the unfathomable circumstances, it’s crazy to think of it in Williamson’s narrative. The most noteworthy thing he accomplished wasn’t on the court, but his decision to donate part of his salary to Pelicans employees during the pandemic. Otherwise, he was fine but as the firing of Gentry would suggest, there was a need to reassess what the team could be and hope that things could work out better. Still, amid constant injuries and demands that were thrust upon him, Williamson’s rookie season will always be a fascinating misnomer in a season of misnomers.
Would he have been better if he wasn’t plagued with injuries and a pandemic? It’s hard to really say. He was by no means a failure, though it begins to make one wonder how the 2020/2021 season is going to look. Whereas the 2019/2020 season was overlong, postponed with potential cancellation, next season is truncated with everyone having to play at an accelerated schedule, barely recovering from last season. The Rookies may be reputed heroes on the college circuit, but without a major season to stay in shape this season, it’s likely that even the best of the bunch is going to flop at first, doing everything to try and keep up with the pros who have only been off for a month or two.
Then again, that’s the fun of The NBA Rookie Draft. While some things may be more apparent than others, it’s the uncertainty that a Number One Pick will be the best of the group. Maybe they are hidden somewhere inside, waiting to be discovered. Nobody really knows until years later sometimes. It’s a fun gamble and a great reason to look at these talented prospects and figure who is a diamond in the rough. Williamson so far feels like he’s the closest to being that in quite some time, even if he’s still more revered for his charisma than his gameplay sometimes. Still, what a year to debut. There’s no shortage of stories for this one.
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