Basketball talent Zion Williamson has been labeled as a lazy and unfit NBA player.
One of the most talented basketball players of all time. Athletes like him are born only once in a generation. Freak. Exceptional in terms of physical properties.
Zion Williamson received quite a few words of praise from respected NBA personalities when he was drafted as the first player in the NBA 4.5 years ago in 2019.
The things he did at Duke made him look like a superman, even though he couldn’t even carry the team very far. However, mere talent is not enough in the end games, its top talent has been noticed the hard way.
The start of 23-year-old Zion Williamson’s NBA career has been problematic, especially when it comes to injuries or the level to play a lot of important games and thus help the New Orleans Pelicans.
Williamson has been called overweight and his fitness has also been questioned recently.
On December 7, Pelicans lost to the LA Lakers in the semifinals of the NBA cup tournament. In connection with that, an expert duo in TNT’s studio section Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal criticized Williamson as being out of shape.
– I had to go through this same thing at the beginning of my career. I couldn’t play back-to-back NBA games until I lost a good 20 pounds. We all thought before that he (Zion Williamson) is the next big thing, we haven’t seen this yet, Barkley commented.
New Orleans Times Picayune has reported that Williamson’s NBA team has long questioned the work ethic of their star player.
After all, the big winger has played 137 matches out of a possible 357 games, i.e. only 38 percent, in just over four seasons due to his injuries.
Williamson signed a five-year, $197 million contract extension in July of last year, but the Pelicans negotiated on paper things that protect the NBA club in matters related to the star player’s health and fitness.
Online publication The Athletic says, citing sources, that when Williamson missed more than 22 games last season, it changed his salary for 2025-26, 2026-27 and 2027-28. At the same time, the Pelicans can waive him after the 2024-25 season without financial penalties.
Williamson is in danger of losing even more money if he doesn’t reach the required sum of weight and body fat percentage, which is 133 kilograms. Last season he weighed 129 kilos.