Zion wants to stay long-term with New Orleans after NBA playoff run

Injury-nagged Zion Williamson – who missed the entire 2021-22 NBA season with a broken right foot – wants a long-term deal with the New Orleans Pelicans after watching their playoff run.

The 21-year-old American forward, who has played only 85 games since being made the top choice of the 2019 NBA Draft, is eligible to sign a long-term deal this summer.

Williamson sees the young Pelicans team that pushed overall top seed Phoenix in the first round of the playoffs as one he would like to join on the court next season.

"I wouldn't be able to sign it fast enough," Williamson said Friday of a contract extension. "Anybody that knows me knows I want to be here."

There were doubters after the Pelicans went 36-46 in the regular season, but two play-in game wins and two wins over Phoenix before dropping their best-of-seven series helped show the potential on the club's roster.

"My first two years, it was a good locker room. This year, with us making the playoffs, it was more together," Williamson said. "Guys are already excited about coming together this off season."

The Pelicans were eliminated by the Suns on Thursday and Williamson was merely a spectator, as he has been since September foot surgery.

"It sucks watching from the sidelines. I just want to be out there," Williamson said.

"Seeing the potential, we've got a lot of great pieces and I'm excited to get on the court with those guys.

"From a physical standpoint, I definitely could have played. But me and my team and the front office we decided longevity was better than trying to rush back."

Williamson suffered a knee injury in the pre-season of his NBA rookie campaign and played only 24 games. He played 61 games in the 2020-21 campaign and averaged 27.0 points, 7.2 rebounds and 3.7 assists a game, exciting fans with dominating play and leaping slam dunks.

Williamson said he could contribute to team success and have plenty of chance to capture individual awards as a member of the Pelicans.

"The more your team wins, the more the individual awards will come," he said. "We're a special group. I feel like a lot of great things will happen."

- Won't sneak up on foes -

Pelicans coach Willie Green was confident about the future after the playoff run.

"I believe this is the start of something special," Green said. "We are excited about what we were able to do but we've got some work to do and we look forward to that.

"My message to our team is there will be expectations. You won't sneak up on anybody."

A young but talented New Orleans squad was able to challenge the reigning Western Conference champions, a veteran-laden lineup.

"They've all grown up right before our eyes," Green said. "That experience will help us in the future. They felt what the playoffs is like. They know how hard they have to play."

Green noted he won't have any final decision regarding contracts and Williamson, but was happy to hear he wants to be part of what Green is building.

"Him wanting to be here and the basketball part is what I focus on, that he wants to be here and in the gym, get healthy and working toward being the best player he can be."

Agence France-Presse

March Madness: Zion Williamson, Duke avoid upset, edge Virginia Tech

WASHINGTON — There was nothing Zion Williamson could do but watch. Once again, Williamson and Duke were at the mercy of an opponent’s last-second shot at the rim. Once again, the Blue Devils and their phenomenal freshmen marched on in March Madness when the ball didn’t drop through.

Williamson and No. 1 overall seed Duke moved into the Elite Eight by erasing a deficit and then holding on to edge No. 4-seeded Virginia Tech 75-73 on Friday night.

Narrow as could be.


The Hokies had their chances in the closing seconds, the final one coming on an inbounds play with 1.1 seconds left. The ball went to Ahmed Hill as he jumped to the basket, but his attempt to tie it somehow fell short from close-as-can-be.

“I’m not gonna lie to you,” Williamson said. “When he caught it, I said: ‘That’s it. We’re going to overtime.’”

Hill dropped to the court on his back.

“I just came up short,” he’d say later.

Williams — fittingly — grabbed the basketball and smiled broadly.It was similar to the way two last-gasp shots went off the rim for Duke’s second-round opponent, UCF.

“The old thing: The operation was a success, but the patient died,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “Their play was a success, but it didn’t work.”

And so now Duke will take on No. 2 seed Michigan State on Sunday with a Final Four berth on the line.

That Coach K and his crew are moving on is thanks in part, of course, to Hill’s late flub, of which Virginia Tech’s Kerry Blackshear Jr. said: “Ahmed is the guy that we definitely want taking that shot. You wouldn’t want it any other way.”

Duke also got by because a pair of 3s by Virginia Tech went awry just before that final miss, one by Hill and the other by Ty Outlaw.

But give plenty of credit to Williamson, and his fellow first-year stars RJ Barrett and Tre Jones. Williamson scored 23 points, Barrett had 18 and a career-high 11 assists, and Jones added 22 points and eight assists.

Barrett made only one shot in the first half, which ended with Virginia Tech up 38-34. But he made five of his first six shots after the break.

“We’ve seen him take over games all year long,” Duke’s Javin DeLaurier said.

Williamson showed off his full repertoire, all of the sorts of skills that made people joke — well, actually, they might be dead serious — that NBA teams would be #NotTryinForZion, tanking away this season in order to get a better chance at taking him with the No. 1 overall pick in the draft.

At 6-foot-7 and 285 pounds but with the agility, speed and flair of a guard, Williamson scored seven of Duke’s first nine points, including one rise-above-it-all put-back jam and, later, a 3-pointer. He flew from seemingly nowhere to swat a shot off the glass at the defensive end. He tapped in a no-look layup.

And then, when Duke used a 9-0 run to erase its last deficit and make it 60-52 with 10 minutes left, Williamson was a part of it, naturally. There was a dart of a pass out of a double team in the paint to find Jones in a corner for a 3. And then the coup de grace — a soaring, rim-rattling, two-handed alley-oop dunk off a lob from Jones.

“I’m jumping not knowing where the rim is,” Williamson said. “A great moment.”

Perhaps buoyed by the knowledge that it beat Duke already this season, at home in February — albeit while Williamson was sidelined for five games after hurting his knee in a bizarre, headline-grabbing shoe mishap during a game — Virginia Tech came out looking like a team that believed.

Believed it could withstand a big game from Williamson. 


Believed it could hang with the highly regarded Blue Devils.

Believed it could win.

This time, the Blue Devils were without another terrific freshman, forward Cam Reddish, who was sidelined with a bad knee and was a late scratch.

It took Duke 13½ minutes just to grab its initial lead. The Blue Devils were down in the second half. They were pushed the limit for the second game in a row. And they pulled through for the second game in a row.

TECH’S TOP PLAYERS

Blackshear led the Hokies with 18 points and 16 rebounds. Hill scored 15.

REDDISH OUT

Reddish had started each of Duke’s 35 games entering Thursday. Part of a tremendous recruiting class, he ranks third on the team with a 13.6-point scoring average. “We didn’t find out until right before the game,” Krzyzweski said.

OUTLAW IN

Outlaw started and finished with five points. He was arrested and charged with possession of marijuana based on something that happened at his home in Virginia while he was with the Hokies for their opening NCAA games in California. Coach Buzz Williams said Outlaw passed a drug test administered by an outside agency. 



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Duke is 12-2 against Michigan State overall, 4-1 in the NCAAs. Michigan State beat No. 3 seed LSU 80-63 to reach the Elite Eight for the 10th time under coach Tom Izzo.

source: sports.inquirer.net