Zion Williamson on how he feels about his NBA career: “I am not where I want to be… I am just not where I need to be and I’m not where I want to be.”
I thought he just meant in terms of his success
I thought he meant hot dog eating ability
I thought he meant horn dog ability
I thought he meant that he wanted to be at a buffet at all times
He did 😂
I think we was just waiting to go to Wendy’s
I’m not sure if there are many rational men who would perceive it otherwise.
Leave the man alone! He’s hungry and we’re all bashing him for wanting to be at his favorite restaurant.
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Because that was the question? Are people this stupid?
I don’t think they’re stupid, but they purposefully misinterpret quotes so that it comes off more scintillating. It’s more exciting for them.
He had a chance to elaborate and did not specify.
His fault for leaving room for ambiguity
No you guys just like to extract drama out of every sentence
Or you could try using your brain for once
The most telling fact is that when we discuss Team USA in 2028, his name never comes up. We’ve collectively given up on him.
I be forgetting he’s even in the league.
I see more fat jokes about Zion than I see highlights tbh
I remember a video from him showing us his new tattoo and halfway through the video his chef comes out with a massive bowl of pasta. The jokes write themselves
yeah cuz he doesn’t play
He played 62 games last season, he just kinda sucks now.
Don’t blame you he’s averaging 46 games a season and hasn’t been healthy in a hot minute.
The other half of it is that he’s not improved much since coming into the league. He can’t shoot 3s.
The cherry on top is he plays for New Orleans.
The New Orleans thing is an understated hurdle. Not as big as his food and sex addictions but it’s not helping.
Sometimes I forget the pelicans exist in general
Every year I check in to see if he’s still on the Pelicans
Team USA 2028? in Los Angeles….. Definitely not……all the stars wanna play in that one
I wonder if Zion can get to the FIBA 2027 team in Qatar though
It would be a good audition for him at the very least
will be good for him…. if you cant win championships….at least get some gold medals like Carmelo Anthony… Zion make that 3-4 yr commitment to team usa and maybe get on the 2032 Olympic team
He’s a fucking loser that wrecked his career by eating too much and not working on his game at all.
This is a bit harsh, but yeah that’s pretty much the gist of it.
Watching this dude at Duke made me very excited for the future as a fan of the game of basketball. He made it so exciting to watch. Bro could have easily become one of the most electric players of all time. But nah. His priorities were instead to bang pornstars and eat fast food.
On some level, that does absolutely does deserve some shame. It’s pretty pathetic
I understand, though. I mighta done the same in my twenties given the opportunity.
I mean yeah that’s probably most of us on here, tbh.
But the NBA is “where amazing happens”. If you make it there, you get held to a certain standard. People loved Kobe so much not just because of his talent, but because he was a guy who literally got the most out of himself as was humanly possible, pretty much.
Zion seems to be the opposite of that.
Not everyone needs to be Kobe (actually 99.99% people definitely shouldn’t be), but they do need to hold themselves to a certain standard. Zion’s standard is near bottom of the league, while his abilities were at one point near the top. That’s the issue. Can’t have that much of a separation between those two things and expect people to have any respect for you when you’re getting paid hundreds of millions.
Lmao that’s facts
woah – who gave up on who exactly
Disagree. The big indicator is the amount of national tv games they have. It’s clear cut the league gave up on him when they stopped showing the pelicans
They couldn’t count on hem to be available for those games. He burned them too many times.
It would be fun to see him yam on some ground bound European whites
Given the hype coming out of college, just two all star appearances with no all nba appearances or meaningful playoff wins is honestly extremely disappointing. Scouts thought he’d be the next Barkley and he arguably hasn’t even been a top 20 player. That said, I think that more on him than New Orleans—plenty of great players have shown they’re elite even while trapped on bad teams, but Zion just…hasn’t
Forget meaningful playoff wins. He has 0 playoff minutes. He was injured both times the Pelicans reached the Playoffs.
Yeah it’s a really low end outcome considering his infinite career arcs.
He’s All NBA for the 26 games he plays every season.
he was healthy last year - no one cared and they still sucked because he is the same player he was 6 years ago, if not worse
There’s no argument, he’s never been a top 20 player. He had the talent to be there obviously, but you need to be available and have sustainable success to reach that level. I never have to worry about Jaylen Brown showing up or Devin Booker putting in the work. Forget the SGAs and Jokics of the league, which is where we all hoped Zion would be at this point.
I agree but I also feel like the pelicans from the very beginning allowed him to have too much freedom. They never nipped it in the bud and he isn’t being treated more strictly. Even as a number 1 pick that has talent he should have been traded a long time ago where who knows if he wakes up enough to become elite again but as an nba player. They’ve given him too many chances and he knows he can get away with it in New Orleans.
this could taken out of context, but it’s Reddit so people definitely won’t do that
Zion is such a non factor in the landscape of the league does it even matter
Like oh wow Zion is changing teams? Kings or clippers ?
This killed me lmao. Add the nets to that
He gone
Unfortunately he’s not far off from Ja and Trae from a trade value standpoint
No one wants his fat and lazy ass taking up the 40% of their cap
To Cracker Barrel
Zion to Philly
He… wants to play for the Sonics?! I knew it!!!
Maybe for the sonic drive-thru
Close enough, I guess
I mean, maybe the Pelicans don’t protect him.
It’s so crazy the truth of this statement. Also what is true is that the Knicks winning a championship if the Knicks had won the Zion lotto would have still been a fantasy.
A literacy crisis? On MY internet??
I thought it seemed like a moment of introspection at first and then on the full viewing he 100% wants out
He was asked where he’s at in his career… not what city he’s playing in. Stupid.
Send this guy to the city with the blandest food and the flatest women. Only then will he become the player we were promised.
Utah.
Lily White girls and 200 g sugar per serving soda might not be the move for our boy
With the amount of soda the mormons are drinking it might be hard finding a flat woman
Zion would convert and have 17 wives and 35 weddings, all buffet style
Most ice cream eaten per capita. Turns out when your religion bans all the fun stuff you gotta have a vice with something
Yea, Utah may not be the move. Curvy women there look like stacks of Pancakes. We don’t want to confuse him now.
We may need an expansion team in Boise.
You’ve clearly never been to Boise.
Idk man. Them snow bunnies look mighty fine.
Don’t tell Zion about funeral potatoes
Nah bro that ship sailed a long ass time and many injuries ago.
Whatever possible level Zion can still get back to at this point, is nautical miles below where he could’ve been coming out of Duke.
Also I don’t know if nautical miles are longer than regular miles or anything but it sounded cooler to say it that way and kind of went along with my ship metaphor.
1 nautical mile =
1.151 miles
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just like metric tons
You know what… we’re an option. The food has gotten better but we’re an option.
wyoming? If there’s nobody there he can’t do nothing
Wyoming is not a city and the State does not have an NBA franchise
He can remote call to work
He’s injured like 90% of the time, so this could work
Zion doing Zoom workouts from Wyoming might actually be his best bet.
open the schools
Source? /s
Utah?
Boston could use the help with jb gone
I see you’re not even putting the second t in flattest good call
Two consecutive ts in this economy?
Dont think the Thunder have the cap space.
Hahaha, touche
I’ve had better pizza in OKC and seen better looking women there too than the NY and their locals
That was your family reunion
Put the beignet down before you reply again
Moriah Mills sucked this guy’s essence right out of him. He hasn’t been the same since
Nah, dude has been pussy-drunk since college. Look up that video where he video call that coed chick.
Dude came into the league weighing 285 pounds. He was never locked in
Nobody forced him to make bad decisions with his dick. The eternal downfall of man
It’s called a tornado, nerd
It really takes one toxic Libra to fuck up your life.
These dudes gotta follow the RACE strategy. Restate, answer, cite evidence, and explain.
For example, “I am not where I want to be at this point in my NBA career because I wish I had won more, gotten more accolades, and the respect I think I deserve because the majority of my peers do, but I do not.”
Really helps against sound bites and people using your statements as bait.
Don’t bring race into this.
Edit: Typical Celtic fan MO.
Everyone knows Zion is colorblind
“I can turn anything you say into a problem” - Cheesonkeyboard and also my ex
“and also anything you didn’t say”
Finally some content for the elementary English teachers
Wouldn’t a click bait article simply cut that and put in the title something like
“
I am not where I want to be” and adds
“I want to win”
Congrats, you just got a job at The Sun
That is a writing strategy for students, not advice for an NBA player at a press conference. His goal is not to facilitate productive classroom discussion, it’s to deflect and defuse an awkward question without providing bad soundbites
And the key in deflecting & defusing an awkward question without providing bad soundbites is not to be vague.
The exact opposite is true, the key is to make a bunch of sounds with your mouth that vaguely resemble a boring answer but actually mean nothing
you think he cares?
you think I do?
seem worried for him
What you see and what’s actually happening, are—unfortunately—antithetical.
Social media and news articles will twist his words either way… Better for him to be vague than give a long winded answer instead lol
There’s nothing wrong with what mans said.
You can’t want guys to give actual substantive answers and not say anything that could possibly be construed by some random people to mean some random thing. That’s no way to conduct a life.
As a teacher, seeing someone mention RACE in the wild is pretty surreal lol
I put “who most recently won the NBA championship” as the 500 point question in review jeopardy and none of my kids got it. More soccer fans than anything LOL
How are people taking this out of context?? It’s clearly a figurative “where,” not physical
Did not even occur to me until I saw the comments that the guy wearing a New Orleans jersey with the Smoothie King backdrop was saying he doesn’t want to play for the Pelicans, lol.
He was a #1 pick who’s had a rough career compared to expectations, of course this is what he means
It’s not a good look in a figurative or physical context. For Pelican/Zion fans it’s a stress inducing comment either way.
Who are these pelican fans you’re talking about? Are they hiding behind the kings fans?
I was trying to be nice
so obviously he means about himself, right
Yeah, pretty obvious but also he could have just said like 10 more words and saved himself a lot of trouble.
Zion in the Sizzler parking lot staring across the street at Golden Corral
We are at, what, year 8 for Zion? At this point, the Pelicans should just try to get as much as they can for him and start their new direction with Derik Queen.
He clearly needs a new start somewhere else.
“start the new direction with Derik Queen”
Going from fat player with no shooting and no defense but superstar upside to fat player with no shooting and no defense but fringe all-star ceiling is certainly a choice.
Derik Queen is not a player you build around either
He doesn’t want to be either
Problem is Pels seem to constantly overvalue their assets. Plenty of people have come knocking about Zion, Murphy, Jones etc because they have plenty of good players, they just expect too much for them
yeah their new GM is apparently the king of that.
I was watching Kofie who was so happy when Troy Weaver left detroit because there were so many times he could’ve gotten great deals for players and never took it because he was too high on his own picks.
Like every fantasy team manager.
Is that a problem if we’re happy to walk away from the trade offers? It seems the problem belongs to every one else who wishes we’d make those trades
The Pelicans about to lose their star player, so they trade him to get as much value as possible?
Doesn’t sound very believable.
Theyre gonna lose him & Murphy without question.
Can I offer you an overpriced diva center who faded in the playoffs and just turned down $200 million dollars?
You want to trade that for an overpriced fat center who never been to the playoff who cost more than 200 million?
That’s exactly what Zion wants. Whoever they trade for gonna do the same thing.
Better to sell the team atp, Pelicans are a net negative to the city.
it’s over zion it’s been 6 years
He has had more allegations than playoff wins so at least he is right here
The pelicans have attachment issues so they’ll never trade him. But I really feel like a new environment would help so much
I think his plan was to half-ass it until Pelicans finally gave up and shipped him to a Pistons type team on the verge of contending with another boost of firepower. Pels never give up apparently.
The Pelicans telling Zion they aren’t going to give up somehow sounds like a threat.😂
Im fuckin dying
The money will increase until performance improves.
Sunk cost fallacy at its finest
Eh maybe that was the case in the first 3-4 seasons.
I’d imagine if a right deal came along, they’d part ways with him.
I’m at the point of apathy with Zion. I’m more interested in the development of Fears/Queen than seeing which manner Zion will disappoint this season.
The problem is that his potential is high but his performance is ass so the no ones gonna give up much for him and the Pelicans dont want to sell low and then he gets his shit together.
Hi Nico. He’ll get rid of him.
Get him to Miami
Yeah, he won’t have to worry about gold diggers in Miami.
Riles and Spo about to padlock his door from the outside lol
Crazy to think that this guy is basically a 6’6” blend of Shaq and Barkley when he plays. He could have been so damn great.
Yeah it is crazy. The hype from high school and college. To nothing now. I don’t even know if it’s injuries or what. I feel like he had so much potential but just didn’t capitalize. But who am I to talk
I remember all the hype around lazybandit94 coming out of high school, going to be the next motivated philanthropist, but in the end, time catches us all, what are we left with? A 32 year old lazy bandit.
Preach! 🙌🏽
I don’t want to be here
Zion is like the biggest what if right now. He just got to get his body in appropriate shape and hire a trainer that can get him to a point where he isn’t constantly injured.
It’s cause he wants to be with these big booty latinas
He just like me fr 😭
He is just like me for real.
“Im closer to Zion than you are to me”
You don’t?
There is nothing latina about his taste lol
Today, I am Zion Williamson
He wants to be inside Moriah Mills. He needs to be inside Moriah Mills
Big booty Latinas in Indiana????
Are there latinas in NO?
All he needs to do is stop thinking with his dick and lock in.
Or be like Ant and do both
He was supposed to be generational, the next face of the league who would take the baton from LeBron.
When he plays his stats are incredible but his team are always losing, even though they have talent, clunky fits but talent nonetheless.
Very odd careers. Somewhat like Mike Trout but with none of the MVPs. Lol
Could you imagine if he was an MFer like Giannis? Just out to annihilate his opponents?
I think I have mostly given up on Zion. But I would absolutely love him to prove me wrong. Such a cool tool set. I don’t know if we’ve seen anything like him. Maybe Barkley.
Dude seems more like Kemp. Distracted by drugs,women and food. Jump out the arena. Just zero fucks.
I can see a Kemp comp, but definitely only “2nd half of career Kemp”. When Kemp was in Seattle early on, he had a killer instinct. Same physical tools as Zion, but a totally different mentality.
When Kemp succumbed to his vices later on, yea, the Zion comp is a good one.
I should have specified that his potential is Barkley. But Barkley played with hate. Won an MVP. Pushed MJ.
I don’t know if Zion has that in him.
I Dont wanna be here
Cheese cake factory?
Come on guys he is still a prospect.
It’s cool zion thank you for your awesome Duke highlight reel you’ve done enough rest easy big fella
I can definitely see the pelicans giving him another 4 years.
Well damn
Injuries, his crazy personal life (baby mamma and porn stars) and lack of effort to stay in shape after injuries have completely derailed any chance he had to live up to these hopes placed on him.
Is he talking about his play or the current team he is on ?
Me: Yes
He definitely needs a new team.
For example, what if the Wolves went and got Zion instead of Lamelo?
Goes to a playoff team with a good medical staff. While playing in between two the best to defensive players he has played with in McDaniels and Rudy. Slide Ayo the one as originally intended with Ant.
That would be amazing for Zion and a force in the west. There is other options but it’s just an example of we could instantly be looking at him as a piece to a team instead of not thinking of him at all.
Not worth the risk for the Wolves, they need something to push them over the top, Zion could pull them back if he’s not dedicated.
I think he was just using that as an example of a fresh start.
In one sense you have a point but on the other hand… Not sure Lamelo is any MORE likely than Zion to work hard.
so is he where he wants to be or not? A little clarity would be nice…
Not
What being a pelican does to a man
People with criticize him but if you were given millions, a great food rep, and as many bbl chicks in your DM’s, who knows.
Generational disappointment and gooner
Takes a very weak man to let his dick dictate all of his life decisions. What a waste of talent and skill.
He’s had >4 serious injuries, what tf u cockwatching for?
You can all overthink this all you want but I think he’s talking about himself.
Guys. I don’t think he is where he wants to be.
Are you sure? I think he is not where he needs to be
For what we know for sure, where he is now, is not where he wants to be.
Part of me feels bad for him. A very tiny part. For the sake of the world, eliminate the pelicans from existence.
there is never a next lebron
I genuinely feel like he’d benefit from a new environment but idk anybody with the assets to trade for him that would do it. Like there isn’t a team with a spare 40+ million to move
Guy’s a bum
Sounds like someone is finally realizing their contract year is next year.
Goofy ahh 🥷🏾
The amount of folks here, in the nba, and everywhere else that continue to dream on Duke Zion amazes me. At this point, he is who he is. Turning that corner ain’t in the cards…
You realise you’re the problem don’t you buddy? You could fix these issues yourself.
But dem hoes feel good
This might not obvious to you, but he’s talking about himself as a player.
How does that go against anything I said?
He’s admitting that he’s the reason he’s in that spot too, I thought that was fairly obvious.
One of the most annoying things about talking sports in social media is the amount of people who proudly comment info that is just flat out incorrect. Zion is a prime example, because hardly anyone actually watches the Pels, yet here they all are, agreeing on their misinformed opinions.
It’s like this:
Is Zion ‘the next LeBron’ or whatever? Hell fucking no.
Has he been a major problem in a gazillion ways? 1000% Absolutely.
Is he fat though? No - and he hasn’t been for a few years now.
Is he washed? No fucking way.
Zion can’t carry a team like everyone thought, for sure, but he’s still a walking bucket. The dude shot over 60% from the field last year on one of the worst teams in the league. He also played the best defense anyone who’s watched him has seen him play, and was more active offball than I’ve ever seen - despite the team being shit. His raw stats were down because his usage rate was down, but don’t fool yourself into thinking that means he just fell off - 21/6/3 on 64.4TS% with a steal isn’t exactly shit anyway.
Will he be healthy? Of course that remains to be seen - but he’s in shape, and he was healthy 2⁄3 seasons; would’ve hit the 65 game mark if not for the Pels shutting him down when they had no reason to try anymore.
I think he needs to leave the Pels. For his own good and their own good - it has just run its course. Give the dude a second chance on a contender; an organization that is actually disciplined and coached well with ownership that genuinely CARES and watch him have a second life
Someone edit this with some sad music 💔
Been over for a while now