It's been a tumultuous career for New Orleans star Zion Williamson. When he has been on the court, he has been dominant, but the issue has been his injuries. Since the Pelicans added Zion to the team due to his injuries, he has been in and out of the lineup and has had to deal with it constantly. He is also battling injuries at the moment and even said that the worst time of his career was missing his third season because of it.
Zion Williamson visited ESPN's "NBA Today" and had a lengthy conversation with Malika Andrews, revealing that the hardest part of his career was missing his entire third season due to a broken foot. It was a low point because he was taking shots at about his weight from everywhere, and he wanted to focus on basketball first, but he couldn't do that.
Williamson explained, "The hardest point was when I missed my sophomore year because of a broken foot. ... There was a lot of criticism about my weight, my care about the game. ... I was really low because I just wanted to play basketball."
Williamson was actually experiencing the healthiest time of his career, playing 35 consecutive games and 45 games overall this season. Still, he recently sprained his ankle during Saturday's win over the Jazz. Despite being healthy, he is averaging 21.5 points while tying his career low with 5.8 rebounds per game.
In his career, Williamson has played 259 matches, while losing a total of 296 matches. Now, that number is about to increase following his latest ankle sprain.
It's also worth noting that he's in the third season of a five-year, $197.2 million deal with the Pelicans. He is making $39.4 million this year and is set to make $42.2 million next season and $44.9 million for the 2027-28 season.
Interim coach James Borrego said Williams has an ankle injury, but there was no immediate information on the severity of the injury.
"Hopefully, it's nothing serious, and we'll have him back there soon," Borrego said.
