Isn’t it time to pull the covers off of Zion Williamson?
Can we please, to this point in his NBA career, call the former Duke phenom a disappointment? Two seasons for the No. 1 pick overall by the Pelicans, one interrupted by COVID and injuries, a second straight when they didn’t make the playoffs.
Meanwhile, brotherhood bros are doing much better, starting with 2017 first-round pick Jayson Tatum, who put the injured Celtics on his back and scored 50 Tuesday night in the play-in win over the Wizards and a fourth straight trip to the playoffs for Tatum.
R.J. Barrett, who played in Zion’s shadow at Duke, is breaking out with the Knicks who have made the playoffs for the first time this century, or so it seems. Even the stars of the 2018 team, Marvin Bagley III, Wendell Carter Jr., and Gary Trent Jr. are having decent double-figure NBA careers despite also being plagued by injuries.
Zion can’t stay out of the news for another reason, the living embodiment of where there is smoke there is fire. A big court case because he dropped one agent to sign with another, and now the newest documents coming out of the Adidas scandal in which Zion’s family reportedly got direct payments from both the shoe company and other businesses through which Adidas laundered the money.
Duke, of course, will escape any scrutiny on this because the payoffs under investigation occurred while Williamson was in high school. Still, if the smoke turns into fire, the Blue Devils may be forced to vacate all of their wins, including the Elite Eight finish in the NCAA tournament, for his one-and-done season.
There is still the issue of the mega home in a swanky Durham development where the family lived while Zion became a superstar, plus fancy cars and prep schools for his parents and younger brother.
Like the infamous Lance Thomas jewelry purchase-for-credit during Duke’s 2010 national championship season magically went away, so will these latest claims against Williamson unless the NCAA steps in and sanctions the school for violating its amateur status.
Is it time to finally follow the national reports and expose the truth about Zion, or now that he’s gone does the local media really give a damn?
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