Zion Williamson Update - Responses To The Fitness Controversy
Former Duke star is in the middle of a media pile-on
As you probably noticed this week, Zion Williamson got a lot of criticism. People like Stephen A. Smith ripped into him for his weight and the perception that he’s out of shape.
There have been some interesting responses to this. Shaquille O’Neal empathized because he used to be casual about his own weight and fitness.
Teammate Jose Alvarado said this: “He’s human. He heard all that noise about that game in L.A. One thing about it: We can get on him. But the whole world, they trying to push him to be great. Obviously, we appreciate that. But f*** all that negative towards him. He’s a human being.”
Former NBA star Carmelo Anthony weighed in with this:
“I think, from the beginning, there was so much put on Zion, like thrown at him. You have to be the next — you are the logo, you are the next guy. We haven’t seen [anything] like this since ‘03. So because of that… this kid is [coming in at] 18 — this kid still wants to eat McDonald’s, this kid still wants to eat Chick-fil-A, this kid still wants to drink iced tea, man he’s from South Carolina… this is what they do — they eat… The fans want him to be Zion Williamson, the greatest thing since Wilt Chamberlain… but that’s not who he wants to be yet. So now he’s dealing with the mental aspect of ‘I just want to be 19, but it’s so much pressure…’ So you start battling that and now injuries come… so now it’s [that] he’s too heavy, he’s this, he’s that… He needs to be discipline[d]… You [are] not gonna have that longevity that we are talking about if you don’t have that discipline… my message Zion is discipline, do what you gotta do an embrace the white hat.”
We’ve seen him at times in great shape and other time less so. But he remains an immensely fun basketball player to watch and one of the smartest players in the league. We hope things work out for him and that he can be the star that he is so clearly meant to be.
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