Goodbye to Another Catastrophic Season of Zion Williamson

The New Orleans Pelicans announced on Monday that Zion Williamson and CJ McCollum will not return to play for the remainder of the 2024-25 season.

The statement was issued a day after the team defeated the Charlotte Hornets 98-94 without Williamson, who is dealing with a bone bruise in his back, and McCollum, who has a bone bruise in his right foot.

With this new injury, Williamson, the first overall pick in the 2019 Draft, will play 30 games or fewer for the fourth time in six seasons. The 24-year-old player sustained the lower back injury after a fall on March 19th against Minnesota and has since been absent in the following five games. Prior to the incident, he had achieved his first two career triple-doubles within an eight-game span.

According to the franchise, Williamson's rehabilitation process will involve rest and treatment.

Since the 1997-98 season, no other player has managed to average at least 15 points in the paint with a shooting percentage above 55% in each of their first five seasons, as per ESPN Research. However, in his six years in the NBA, Williamson has been out in 258 games, surpassing the 214 he has played in.

The two-time All-Star finishes the season with averages of 24.6 points, 7.2 rebounds, 5.3 assists, and 1.2 steals in 30 games played.

On the other hand, McCollum sustained his injury on March 23rd during a game against Detroit in which he scored 40 points. Like Williamson, the shooting guard will undergo a recovery process based on rest and treatment, according to the team.

None of the three Pelicans players who were averaging over 20 points per game—Williamson, McCollum, and Trey Murphy III, who suffered a torn labrum—could finish the season.

New Orleans (21-54) currently holds the fourth worst record in the NBA and has had to rely on 41 different starting lineups in the season due to multiple injuries that ended the season for key players like Williamson, McCollum, Murphy, Dejounte Murray, and Herbert Jones.

This news is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, Adiós a otra catastrófica temporada de Zion Williamson