Zion Williamson still eyeing greatness for himself, Pelicans | Sports

New Orleans Pelicans fans thought they’d be dancing by now.

Zion Williamson thought so, too.

That’s what Williamson promised when he stared into the TV camera that June night in 2019 and said “Let’s dance.”

But Williamson enters his eighth NBA season still trying to deliver not only to a city starving for some hoops success but also for himself.

The Pelicans are coming off the worst back-to-back stretch in franchise history, winning just 26 games last season and 21 the year before that.

They aren’t where they want to be. Neither is Williamson when it comes to his career so far.

“I’m not where I want to be,” Williamson said. “Not where I need to be. Not where I want to be.”

Where he wants to be is in the playoffs. The Pelicans have made it twice since Williamson arrived in the NBA, but he was injured both times and had to watch from the bench.

Where he also wants to be is among the NBA elite, the place everyone expected him to be by now.

Kris Chrisp, who began training Williamson in November, is trying to be the GPS to help Williamson reach his desired destination to finally silence the critics.

“Every athlete sees what people say about them,” Chrisp said. “I don’t care how big of a star they are. He saw the comments that people made about his body. He saw the people they say are better than him. I remind him of it. I try to instill so much confidence in him. ‘Hey man, you need to get back to your spot.’ ”

Chrisp admits he wasn’t so sure how things would go with his new client when he was asked to train him.

“To be honest, I was a little skeptical given some of the media reports and some of the things I had heard about him,” Chrisp said. “But it felt like a challenge I was prepared for. Once we got started, I was amazed. I said, ‘Bro, you are nothing like what people said you were.’ They said he didn’t’ work. But he has done every single thing that I have asked him to do.”

The work started paying off right away. Williamson played in 62 games last season, the second most in his career. When Williamson strained his right hip abductor in November, he was supposed to be out for weeks. He ended up missing just six games, a speedy return for a guy whose injuries normally had lingered. It was that quick recovery that helped Chrisp gain Williamson’s trust.  

They focused on every detail. Making sure Williamson was getting enough sleep. Making sure he was drinking enough water. That included things as simple as watching videos to show Williamson what a dehydrated muscle looks like and why they are more likely to suffer strains.

Once they checked those educational boxes, the strenuous workouts began. Typically, there were two workouts per day. The workouts were more intense during the summer when Williamson would often do three a day. Chrisp made sure to post videos of those workouts on social media.

“Leave it up to me, I wouldn’t post nothing,” Williamson said. “I would just go through the whole summer workout and just show up (for training camp).”

But Chrisp felt it was important for the rest of the basketball world, from Zion fans to Zion haters, to see what he was seeing.  

“We’re in a small market,” Chrisp said. “Given the type of athlete he is, if you don’t show it on social media, people don’t believe it happened. They don’t know what the work looks like. I thought it was very important to showcase the level of work he puts in on a given offseason day.”

Williamson loves the small market, particularly New Orleans. When Chrisp tried to get him to travel to different places for workouts this summer, Williamson insisted they stay in New Orleans. Chrisp was finally able to persuade Williamson to have some sessions in South Carolina, where he was joined by teammate Saddiq Bey.

Chrisp likes what he’s seen. So do the people inside the building like executive vice president of basketball operations Joe Dumars.

“When you’re a young professional, at some point you just want the player to get it,” Dumars said. “What I mean by get it is this: If someone has to call you every morning to drag you out of bed to get you to work out, you don’t get it yet. But when you’re up and you’re doing it and you’re leading it, then you start looking at that guy and you say, ‘OK, he’s getting it now.’ That’s what I saw from Zion.”

His teammates have seen a difference, too.

Guard Jeremiah Fears, when asked what has set the tone for the competitiveness during training camp, had this to say:

“It starts with Zion,” Fears said. “He sets the tone and everybody else just falls in line.”

It hasn’t taken long for Williamson to impress coach Jamahl Mosley, who is in his first season in New Orleans after spending the last five seasons as coach of the Orlando Magic.

“To see him from the other sideline, you always knew how competitive he was, how tough he was,” Mosley said. “Now just sitting with him and watching film and breaking down some of the things he’s working on, (you see) his basketball IQ and work ethic. His ability to continue to put the work in. He’s done that. Trusting his work and his process is something that stands out for me more than anything.”

Williamson often has been the last player to leave practice. He’s spending countless hours working with assistant coach God Shammgod on his 3-point shot, something he wants to add to his game.

Mosley is the fifth different coach Williamson has played for in his eight years. That coaching carousel (Alvin Gentry, Stan Van Gundy, Willie Green, interim James Borrego and Mosley) is yet another reminder of how unsteady things have been since Williamson arrived in New Orleans.

“It’s not the way I would have wanted it to be,” he said. “That’s a part of this business, part of this game. All you can do is adjust with it and hope things get better.”

How well Williamson plays will go a long way in determining whether things get better or if this will be a season of the same ole same ole. In fact, you could use the same headline heading into Wednesday’s season opener against the Indiana Pacers as the one we used for last year’s season opener.

“Is this the season new and improved Zion Williamson delivers for Pelicans?

New Orleans hopes so. Williamson hopes so, too.

He knows time is ticking, which he reflected on at media day.  

“Time has flown,” Williamson said. “As I was getting dressed, I said, ‘Wow, this is Year 8 for me.’ ”

Seven years ago, Williamson was supposed to be the future.

As he enters Year 8, his future feels like now or never.

“I’ve improved with trusting myself and trusting my game and trusting the work I’ve put in where I’m not second guessing myself,” Williamson said. “More leadership. Not just demanding greatness of myself, but of my coaches and teammates and everybody in the building.”

But he knows it starts with himself as he tries to get to where he wants to be.